My 2nd Full Day at Big Bend National Park in Texas

 On the 2nd day we had to spend in the park, we knew we were going to hike a trail in the Chisos Mountains portion, the central portion of the park.  So, we tried to get a little earlier start to drive the hour+ drive from our hotel so that we could find a trail we wanted to hike that had parking.  Some of the trails have very limited parking.  

We were planning to do the Window or the Lost Mines Trail.  The Lost Mines Trail was pretty busy, so we drove on to the central Ranger Park area by the lodge and hooked up with a place to park so we could access the Windows Trail.  

In the parking lot we saw a very tame, but partially lame roadrunner up close.

This in the distance is essentially the V-shaped canyon we were walking toward, called the "windows".

It was gradual downhill for almost the entire 2+ miles...meaning the entire time I was thinking I have to eventually turn around and walk back up this incline.  It was pretty gradual though, except for the park right next to the parking lot, that is a .3 mile staircase made out of railroad ties and rocks and dirt - it was a real bummer coming back up!  Got my heart really pumping!

You can tell in these photos, the trail is mostly in a dry creek bed/canyon where the water runs in the wet season.  It looked essentially like a desert canyon, but parts of it had really pretty trees, large trees.  My hiking friend said some of it looked like parts of northern California.  Others looked more like Arizona or Texas.

This is me sitting in the last section of the Canyon before it goes through the "window".  

This is looking back to where we came from and eventually had to walk back through.  Many rocks and trees.  

As we walked back and felt like we still had enough energy, we took a side canyon trail that goes up the side of one of the canyon walls, so show a lookout up above the "window".  I think it was called Oak Canyon.  It was about 2 miles and then one can keep on going on beyond the window canyon and down into the lowlands and on out to an old ranch site off of the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive.

This was a shot of my lookout way up above the window, to the right, as I looked out at the valley.

This was a shot of our hike back, about 4.4 miles total in and back.  In the distance, you can see Emory Peak, which is the highest peak in the Chisos Mountains.  About 7500+ feet high.  But being as this area is part of the high desert, we were already 1700+ feet up, so we were feeling the altitude a little this day, all the incline and up and over the rocks, etc.  

After we got back to the car and drank more water and had a snack, we decided to ride down part of the Ross Maxwell Scenic drive again and see if we could find the turnoff for one of the ranch sites, where the Oak Canyon hike comes out.  I really wanted to see if we could see the "window" from the other side.  A sort of "look where we were!" - type of thing.  

So, we parked and walked about a mile or so down this road to see the other side.  We met an older couple looking very cute and experienced in their hiking gear walking toward us.  They had done the entire hike one way - to the valley side.  The woman pointed out the trail and confirmed for us, which of the rock structures we were looking at.  

The window we were just at, is the large "v" canyon in the middle.  It was cool to see it from this side.  

After this, we said good bye to this beautiful park and made our way back to Alpine for dinner.  We ate at the historic Hammond, and shared a steak and a salad - it was very good.  I would definitely come to this area again.  I really want to go back and do the 11 mile hike up Emory Peak - after I condition myself to be able to carry 3 liters of water in my backpack!

Have a great week!

Back just in time looking at the weather!

I have a friend who loves a road trip and a good hike - she drove the entire 12 hours to BBNP and back!  I was the navigation and co pilot.  We went on a few nice hikes!

Here is the Wiki link:  Big Bend National Park - Wikipedia

We stayed about 70 miles away (this area of Texas is spread out and pretty isolated and the places in closer Terlingua, TX were booked up!) in a cute little Western Texas town called Alpine - we did a walking tour when we got there Friday afternoon.  

The next day we went to the park and the Ranger Station and got some maps and visited the Eastern most corner of the park, the Rio Grande Valley.  On the way there, we saw a fossil display area - really cool.  Describing how millions of years ago, this area that is now a desert was a shallow ocean.  The archeologist who discovered T Rex (unsure where) came here and found more T Rex and there was a dinosaur discovered here called Alamosaurus.  The display said (I think) in 1940 it took 6 men and a horse drawn wagon several days just to get the head removed and preserved!

This picture shows an TRex head (replica) a Deinosaucous (I think closest head) and a flying dinosaur replica - I almost think that flying one would scare me the most!

We drove past the Boquillas crossing (into Mexico) and saw the Rio Grande for the first time from the overlook near Boquillas, Mexico.  Then we hiked the Boquillas Canyon trail.  It was pretty!

We spent the entire first day seeing the desert portion of the park.  We went to lunch area and had our car lunch on a picnic table under the large cottonwood trees.  Then we started the 3.5 mile (one way) hike along the southwest trail, which was already pretty warm.  We hiked all the way to the overlook about 1.5 miles and enjoyed that pretty view and walked back.  Then we drove to the shorter 1.4 hike near the hot springs.  

The hot springs are a popular spot, we felt like we would rather sit in the 100 degree spring early in the morning or late in the day!

I was lucky enough to spot a road runner on our way driving to the closer hike to the springs.  I did not catch him with a photo though.  On our way driving to the park we also saw coyote, a wild boar and antelope.  The next day we would see mule deer, javelina and couple more road runners.

After the hot springs, we drove by the centrally located Chisos Mountains station to plan our 2nd and last day, on our way to catch the sunrise at Santa Elena Canyon, which is closer to the west side and also along the Rio Grande.

This is a pretty popular spot to see pictures taken in this park.  The taller cliffs on the left are Mexico and the cliff on the right is USA.  There is a hike that runs along the canyon on the right with steps and railings for a pretty overlook hike, but it was getting late in the day and although we both had lights, i was not really up for trying to walk more in the dark!

So we drove back along the very pretty scenic Ross Maxwell drive along the Nail and Wilson ranch sites, the Mule Ears mountain, the Tuff Canyon, etc to a really pretty vista called Sotol Vista Overlook where we finished up seeing the sunset and stayed until 9pm to see the dark sky light up with the stars, plants and part of the Milky Way Galaxy - next time I will take a good camera for that!

The 2nd to the last photo in these 4, the split in the canyon in the middle level of the horizon showing the cliffs is where Santa Elena Canyon is.  Just amazing to see!  This park is a designated "dark sky" area, where this is almost zero light polution, allowing one to see the stars all around, almost like a snow globe effect!

Hope you enjoy.  I will post more next week about our hike in the Chisos Mountains!

Getting ready for a road trip

 So, I am happy to say that as of Friday, I am getting 4 days off.  At least, I hope I am.  I requested 2 weeks ago, and of course have not received confirmation from work yet.  Jeez.

Last week I had 2 full days where I was on the phone literally ALL DAY with the help.

 desk.  The department help desk was trying to outsource my problem to a contractor who in turn, was referring me back to my department help desk.  So frustrating!  Essentially I was told I need a new computer, but evidently the federal government has a shortage of laptops - go figure!

Anyway, I need some R and R badly.  I am going on a 12 hour drive with a hiking friend to Big Bend National Park which is in Western Texas, where the Rio Grande River (which separated Texas from Mexico, makes a "big bend".  It is fairly isolated and already warming up, so we will be taking lots of layers and water and sunscreen!

Here are some pictures I found online and an article about the park Attractions in Big Bend National Park (usatoday.com)

I will hopefully be back safe and sound next week and will post photos.