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!