Ruidoso 080415

Partly cloudy and 75°F.  

I took these photos in mid August of this year. I was coming into Ruidoso from the north on highway 37. In June of 2012 a lightning strike started the Little Bear Fire that burned around 44,000 acres of land and 254 buildings. Three years later the land is slowly recovering.

Burnmountain

It was heartbreaking to see all of these majestic ponderosa pines killed. The pines may or may not ever replenish, but their skeletons will be here for a long time.

Little Bear Fire, June 7, 2012, Three years later

The grasses and wildflowers, that were under the canopy before the fire, are now exploding with growth.

mallowburn2

Globe mallows were covering the roadside.

mallow

Overlooking Alto and Ruidoso.

from alto

It was monsoon season and I saw mushrooms right off in our neighborhood. I had never seen this one before and didn’t get help identifying it. Very interesting. The top was velvety and firm. I cut one open and it looked like layers of cork or wood.

Clubish

Very cool. Maybe I’ll figure out what it is some day…

clubishtop Huge pair of gilled mushrooms.boobshroomside

boobshroomtop We took a hike by Lake Bonita on the little Bonita trail, where there was plenty of flowers and water.

shadedcreek I got to see a leopard slug! What a great texture! it looks like it has a fingerprint on it’s head.

Leopardclose It was big!

LeopardTop

LeopardFront

There were several types of berries growing.

berry

Gorgeous bee balm everywhere!

BeeBalmMeadow

There is so much going on with this flower.

BeeBalmright

beebalmleft My little red dog appreciated the cool waters, shade and no ticks!

creekRoxy

This campanula was really small, which surprised me.

Campanula

Yellow thistle. I’d never seen this one before, so it was interesting. The foliage is much smaller than the other thistles in the area.

YellowThistle1

The buds were so fuzzy and detailed.

YellowThistlebud

YellowThistlebud2

Tripleleaf morning-glory.

Glory Douglas fir cone! I love this thing!

PinonCone

It’s a work of art!

PinonConeTop

As usual, I found a bunch of coral fungus.

Coral

yellowshrub

Clematis seed pod forming. This leaves of three plant is ok to touch.

clematis

We had a wonderful time in the forest! Sorry it took me so long to post these pictures. Below, my hiking companions.

VickyCreekCrossing1

2 thoughts on “Ruidoso 080415”

  1. Thanks for posting this. I forgot that you went! Was surprised to see so many wild flowers similar to the ones in western Oklahoma. What’s the altitude?

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