Too dark for a hike

It's been a long time since I got out in the desert, so I had to go this evening. It was close to sunset when I got out of the truck, and the clouds were getting thick in the west, so there wasn't much light. All the pictures were taken with a flash.

Hedgehog cacti have flowers all over the place now. I found a dead tree that might make some interesting pictures. I'll have to try to find it again in the day time. I also want to find what's in the last picture again. It looked like pottery that had been broken. The side against the ground was covered with gravel, as if it had stuck to it. I don't know what it was. It was too dark to see anything clearly.

I don't have any pictures of the most interesting thing I saw. I was standing still, listening to the quiet and looking at a saguaro skeleton when I heard the sound of hooved animals running. A couple of guys on horses had galloped by when I was driving and I thought it might be them. I heard a pause in the hoof beats as the animals jumped over something. Then I spotted a couple of dear about 75 yards away, heading north. I only saw them for about a second. I decided to go take a look at their footprints. At first I couldn't find them and felt like I had probably gone past them when I spotted some fresh horse hoof prints. I couldn't believe that I had mistaken horses for deer, even if it was a little dark. I was sure there weren't any riders. I was slowly making my way in the direction of the truck when I spotted the deer tracks. The dirt had just been kicked up; they were very fresh prints. Then I found a cholla and some brittlebushes in a row, with prints on either side. The prints on the north side were deep and a lot of dirt was displaced, as if the animals had landed hard. This was what I had heard them jump over.

Bulldog Canyon 2007_04_04