Coyotes and Mountains

We fell asleep last night to the sound of the coyotes yipping. This morning Chorro woke me up with a little "woof." He was standing on the bed looking at the back window so I pulled up the shade and what do you think we saw!

Is this a coyote slinking past the back of our RV?

Snuffling around for some little desert animal?

Retreating off across the desert?

Stalking a human?

Well, maybe not. But we really wanted it to be.

Unlike the wolf, which originated in Eurasia, the coyote evolved in North America and now ranges all the way from Alaska down to Panama. Interestingly enough, they have not been affected by the human population expanding into formerly wilderness areas, and their population continues to grow.

We have not seen nor heard them in the daytime, but after dusk they sound quite close and are noisy as well. Our first few nights on the desert, they woke me up several times a night, complaining, I think, about our taking over their territory.

These are the Kofa Mountains and of the mountains that surround us they are the ones near us that I like best. They were named for the King of Arizona gold mine, which stamped its supplies with K of A, and became known as Kofa. Although their highest peaks are less than 5,000 feet, the surrounding terrain is around 600 feet above sea level, so they really tower up from the valley floors.

They have such interesting shapes.

We found a field of saguaros stretching out in front.

Here's a little closer view.

We drove south down the highway to get a better view of them today. We found a road that led up into them, but it was pretty rocky and looked like it would be hard on our little car, so we didn't go very far.

Then we came back for pictures of the sunset. It was not brilliant tonight, but beautiful nonetheless. The warmth of Arizona's sunset skies rivals its weather.

Today was a good day.