When the rain comes, the ocotillo sprout these lovely little green leaves on their branches, giving the desert an uncharacteristic Christmas green hue. We've entered monsoon season, so we're getting hard rains now. The locals make me smile when they complain, "this humidity is getting to me," when we're only at 40 percent. But the rain is a drastic change and a welcome one. In Van Horn, we've had 6 inches of precipitation this year and 2 1/2 of that came last Thursday.
The photos above were taken in the lower elevations of Big Bend National Park after the first good day there of significant rain....since October.
To show you the contrast, check the archives for my April 17 posting (take this link and page down a bit) of flowering ocotillo and you'll see the impact of all this rain. Rain = Green.
It is hard to show you something else that happens when it rains. A wonderful and thoroughly indescribable scent fills the air. Though I do enjoy the wormy scent of a midwestern rain, I have to say the fresh smell of wet desert is better.
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