Rio Grande River at Las Cruces

Photo of Sarah and her dog Lobo. Lobo is the brother of a dog I used to have.

I posted photos of the Rio Grande River at Albuquerque, NM a few weeks ago. These are photos of how it looks where it runs near Las Cruces. The dought has hit harder there that it has here. There were only small, murky puddles of water here and there. But it gave a good view of the river bed which I had never seen. This cottonwood in fall colors looked great against the beauty of the stark, gray rock hills. Sarah's dogs Lobo and Ruby loved to chase a stick and bring it back together. The also liked to play in the yucky mudpuddles. There is a photo of me and Lobo. And a photo of the river sand with a few of the tiny, delicate fresh water clams that should live here. All I found were a few shells. I hope that there will be enough of them to survive if the water ever comes back. A lot of the water is used for irrigation by the farmers and a lot is left in Elephant Butte Lake which is north of Las Cruces. I would think it would make more since to take more water out of the lake and send it down river, although I have heard the lake is at it's lowest since it was built. It is a man-made lake. I didn't get any photos of the lake this trip.