For the past several days, each afternoon has witnessed vast sheets of yellow blooming across the desert floor. I decided to take a camera with me.

1) El Camino Real

I began my morning as usual, taking my son to school. I noticed a couple of great photo opportunities only as I passed them. Instead, I had to settle for these:

Sun rising over St. Augustine Pass on El Camino Real.

Unfortunately, the sun beat me and I wasn’t able to get a clean picture of a freshly planted field without the obscuring feature of Sol rendering all a mere shadow:

The downtown area was marred by construction, so I opted to leave that out. Instead, I began the long commute and didn’t stop until I reached the ghost town. Organ, New Mexico is a peculiar place. Once a mining town, it has existed for the last half century as little more than the only stopping point between Las Cruces and Alamogordo or White Sands. With the eastward expansion of Las Cruces, the town was reduced to a residential area. It recently occurred to me that the abandoned buildings left along the highway gave it the appearance of a ghost town. I thought to take some pictures to share my daily ghost town experience. My wife, however, thought that I should wait until Spring, as the new growth in the flora would provide a contrast to the lifelessness of each edifice.

So I began my regular Friday drive. Unfortunately, there isn’t a safe place to pull off of the highway to get a good picture before Organ. It really is rather nice in places. I was able to stop at Organ along the way.

This building has both doors open, so you can see all the way through.

This was actually a functioning business when I first moved to Las Cruces some twenty years ago.

From another angle, you can see this is actually an interesting old building. And they once sold "Sandwitches."

The state of the Organ Mountain Lodge motel exemplifies the area. Note the contrast of the active traffic in the background.

I'm not sure when this was last a functioning garage, but it's been at least twenty years.

I think that pretty well describes the first part of my drive.