A hike just south of Makhtesh Ramon

Today (8 October 2012) we drove up to just south of Makhtesh Ramon (the Ramon Crater), where I parked the car at the side of the road and took a short hike. The weather was beautiful, with warm sun, a cool breeze, and a few fluffy clouds in the sky. Also, it was about an hour to an hour and a half before sunset, which is a great time for photography. Here are some pictures that I took (all of them with my iPhone 4s).

For this first one, I hiked up near a small cliff (seen on the right) and took this view looking approximately northeast.

This second picture was taken near the same spot but looking a little more northward. The Makhtesh really begins just the other side of these hills.

In this final view, we are looking almost directly east towards two mesas. Somewhat closer, at the bottom of the picture, you can see our car (the red on on the left) and several others parked along highway 40 at the beginning of the trail I took.