Tough Year In The Desert

John visits Chaco Canyon, the intriguing archaeological ruin in NW New Mexico, and reports about the worrisome effects of the drought:

Chaco was interesting as always but exceedingly hot. We made the mistake of looking at ruins immediately after arriving around noon--I would have known better than that 30 years ago. The next day we did our exploring in the morning before the heat of the day became too overpowering and that definitely worked better. I was struck by the seriousness of the drought there. Even the desert plants are dying. Though they never look like particularly healthy things now most of them are literally half or even completely dead. And what I particularly noticed was that the lichens seem to by dying. Those things grow at a rate of millimeters per decade and can survive most anything--or so I assumed. I can't say positively that the large areas of dead lichens are actually recent but they seemed to be.

Interesting! I'm sure it can get hot there at Chaco Canyon, but I'm saddened to hear it's been so brutal. And glad to hear you didn't fall victim either!

The Southwest has been kicked around pretty hard this last year. I hope the monsoons get started soon - I guess they already have in NM, but AZ is still pretty dry. And fires. Too many fires!