October Walk

Chris and I went for a walk in the canyon yesterday morning as it had just rained the night before.
Because of the rain, the accordion-like pleats of the saguaros had expanded, making the cacti look a little plumper than usual.
The leaves of the cottonwood trees along the creek were just starting to turn golden.

We saw a jack rabbit, a Harris's antelope squirrel and some of the usual birds like this cactus wren.

Even though the rain seemed to have cooled off the heat wave, not many visitors were in the park.
The recent rain wasn't enough for the creek to resume flowing.
We only saw pools of standing water here and there.
We didn't encounter any reptiles in the four hours we were at the canyon.
But there were a lot of these dark orange butterflies.
And, at the first bridge past mile two, there was a surprise up in a tree, that drew a small audience...
A coati! This was the first time Chris or I have seen one at the canyon. Coatis belong to the raccoon family. They're also known as Coatimundis, Brazilian aardvarks, hog-nosed coons, and snookum bears.
I'll put up more pictures of the coati in another post here.