IT'S A WOLF, DAMMIT.

Last morning in Organ Pipe Cactus Monument Park.  I swallowed a quick cup of sugar-saturated chocolate and went out into the almost 32 degree morning for a few deparating shots.  Another fantastic sky bids goodmorning.

Standing quietly a few hundred yards from the main camping area, waiting for a bird to appear near enough for a good shot, and along comes Mr. Wolf.!  I was in the right place at the right time.  The wind was in my face so I wasn't scented.  I had been still as a graveyard so as not to give fright to the birds.  This is a rare, VARY RARE, sighting of the  endangered MEXICAN RED WOLF and I had the great fortune to have a camera to document the moment.

Note the ears, not pointed like the coyote, full body and bushy tail.

He turned in my direction and drilled those yellow eyes into the frightened side of my brain, as if to say, "This is my home, buddy, back-off."  Well I was more than ready to "back-off" slowly when out of the cactus stepped his mate.  WOW!

I did a pretty good job of holding the camera still even though my hands were shaking like a bound-up Beagle's behind.

I carried the pictures up to the information center to confer with the head ranger. She, having an off-day, I'm sure, presented herself like a pickle barrel, both in stance and disposition and says with an impenetrable intolerance to this lowly,  "That's a Coyote." With her opening salvo, she went on  leaving a trail of verbiage normally saved for the advance classes of Canis lupus rufus analyzers. She, nor I, budged one inch in our personal identification beliefs. To be fair, I can understand why she didn't want to have wolves in "her" park. With the scarcity of campers coming to the park because of the economy being in the dumps and the Mexican illegal traffic slinking through the area, she didn't want another fright for the RV'ers. Wolves kill any other canine in "their" area. And, it seems 90% of the RV'ers pack along their dogs, so, I guess, they'll have someone to talk with besides their traveling mate.   Regardless, Ms. Ranger, it was a Mexican Red Wolf, dammit.

You asked, "Are there any real trees around there?"  Well yes, sort of.  This is it, the Palo Verde. It sort of resembles a bushy willow of the north with scrambled-egg DNA and one inch thorns.  Naturally it's drought resistant and belongs to the deciduous family.

Like soldiers marching up to capture the summit, a cadre of Organ Pipe Cactus strew the hillside.

We loved this place and hope to be back another time to explore beyond the boundary of the park.