The Big Bend of Texas (07-25-21)

 
Paul and I love this area of Texas, and have been here several times. Big Bend is one of my favorite national parks- but this time, we came for something else- Big Bend Ranch State Park.  We chose to stay at a resort that is closer to the state park than the national park. It has a pool, fitness room and restaurants. I guess part of the reason I have been choosing resort type places is because its so hot outside, we need things to do besides hike.

Anyway, our first morning there it was our intent to drive into the state park and do a hike. As we sat drinking our coffee, I punched it in Google maps and discovered its a 2 hour drive- mostly down a dirt road. Well, we had lingered too long over our coffee, so we didn’t make it to the park that day. I had forgotten that to get anywhere in this area is at least an hour and a half drive. We elected to leave very early the next day and make a whole day of it.

Instead, we took a short ride along the Rio Grande, enjoying the scenery.

Up early the next day we headed into the park. One of the things I noticed on the bone jarring ride down the dirt road, was a veritable forest of Ocotillo.  We are used to seeing one or two of these plants, but this was thousands of them. And there were “babies”, which we rarely see anywhere.

We stopped at the ranger station to get the scoop on what we should do, and she recommended Cinco Tinajas Trail, about 3 miles round trip.

A tinaja is basically a natural basin with water in it. We hiked as far along as we could without having to go IN the water, then headed up the side, to look down into the chasm.

Further along the trail we came upon a red tailed hawk.  It was really neat to see the mockingbird dove bomb the hawk repeatedly. He must have been near the bird’s nest but he sure didn’t seem to take the attack seriously.

He didn’t seem to care about us much either, showing his apparent disdain by ignoring us.

It was already getting quite warm by the time we finished that hike, so we elected to pass on the second one we were going to do, and just drove around the park, having decided that Big Bend Ranch State Park would be a One Day and Done kind of park.

On the way back to the rig, we stopped to do a short hike into Closed Canyon.  The walls of the canyon are so high, its partly in the shade, making it cooler in the canyon. However, it was 102* outside, and one of us thought that was a little too warm to venture very far into the canyon, so we took a peek, and headed back out.

Being gluttons for punishment, we were up and out the door by daybreak the next day, hiking up a hill adjacent to the RV park.

It was 4 miles round trip, giving us views of the surrounding area and the Rio Grande.

We were done early enough to spend some time in the pool before heading to nearby Study Butte for the 4th of July parade.

On the drive there, it became increasingly clear that there wasn’t going to be a parade, but we still had a great time watching the storm come through.

Not to be deterred, the following day we once again headed to Study Butte for the postponed parade, but it was not meant to be…another storm came through the area, and the parade was canceled again.

This time we skedaddled fast enough to make it to our favorite restaurant just ahead of the crowd.  Starlight Theater has excellent food, and live entertainment most nights. In fact, we ate here twice on this trip.

Our final day in the area we headed to Big Bend National Park.  Before we went, I checked a hiking map to see if there were any interesting trails that we hadn’t hiked yet. I didn’t think there were, and I was right.  We have hiked most of the trails that are under 15 miles…some of them 2-3 times. So, I picked my favorite trail, and that’s what we hiked- Lost Mine Trail.

On our way in to the park we were kind of happy to see the cloud cover hanging over the Chisos Basin.  Clouds would make the hike much cooler….as long as they cleared before we got to the top.

Luckily they did, and we were able to enjoy the fantastic views at the summit.

Once our stay at Big Bend was over, we headed to El Paso to see Paul’s mom.

¡Viva Terlingua! (11-04-12)

It's hard to believe, but this is my 300th blog post.  Anyone who has read it on a regular basis knows that sometimes I write posts with regularity, and sometimes I don't.  Some posts are more interesting than others.  I guess it's the nature of the beast.  Sometimes I am in the mood to write and sometimes I'm not.  So anyway, thanks for bearing with me for the last 3 years!

Terlingua- home to the world renowned International Chili Cook Off! We’ve been to Terlingua several times, as we use it as our base to explore Big Bend National Park. This time we made reservations a year in advance, to make sure we got a place to stay for the Cook Off. Our friends Julie and Mike arrived the day before us and set up camp.

Before the cook off started, we met a couple, Will and Cindy, who were participating. giving us an “inside track” to all things Chili.  As it turns out, the Cook Off was not at all what we expected- there was no Chili, brisket, or beans for the spectators.  This was pure contest, with very few samples and in general, no food available for purchase.  You could get a burger, or a burrito, but that’s about it. Quite disappointing. There are actually two Cook Offs at the same time- the original one and the CASI (Chili Appreciation Society International)Cook Off. 

 The entrance fee to each is about $30 per person.  We paid to get into one of them but then couldn’t say exactly what we got for our money.  Luckily the day we decided to check out the other one, the guy at the ticket booth, for whatever reason, accepted the wristbands from the competing Cook Off, so we didn’t have to pay again. 

Having been denied our dose of Chili, we found ourselves eating at the Starlight Theatre several times. They usually have live entertainment, but the best part is the $1 tacos and $2 Margaritas.

On the way down to Terlingua, we stopped in the Houston area and had dinner with our friends Dave and Avril.  They live in an interesting subdivision.  Instead of your typical golf course, their subdivision has its own runway.  Many of the homeowners own planes- Dave and Avril own two-and their driveway leads directly to the runway.  Talk about easy access! Being near Houston, in addition to many pilots living in the subdivision, they also have several past and present astronauts as neighbors.

Dave and Avril flew down to Terlingua to spend a few days hanging out and hiking with us.

We revisited two of our favorite trails with them- the Lost Mine Trail, and Santa Elena Canyon.

After an awesome two days of food and fun, it was time to watch them fly off into the sun……

 

The hiking continued with Mike and Julie.  Near the RV park there is a short hike that leads to some petro glyphs. There were also some great boulders to climb on as well! Note how blue the sky is! 

One of the things I love about Texas is how blue the sky is.  In fact, the weather has been absolutely perfect while we’ve been here.  We’ve eaten most of our meals outside at the picnic table.  It's been a week full of great food and fun with friends.  Tomorrow we move on, headed towards El Paso to spend a few days with Paul's mom before starting our trek towards Florida.

Big Bend National Park, TX (2-19-11)

February 19, 2011
      I wrote this blog on February 19th, but I don’t know when I will be able to post it, and the pictures that go with it. The RV park we are in has horrible Wi-Fi- essentially non-existent, and AT&T just sent me an email and a text to tell me that I am not on their network and have not been on their network for quite some time, so I need to stop using the internet on my phone until I am. Ugh.

       One day, three adventures. That’s the best way to describe yesterday. We drove across the park to start our first adventure- a hike to Ernst Tinaja. A tinaja is a basin that contains water, I guess, since that’s what we found once we hiked into the canyon. Its not something you’d want to fall into accidently either. It’s really deep, with steep walls of stone, so it would be just about impossible to get out by yourself. The rock formations were really cool in that area and were fun to climb.



 



Ernst Tinaja

       The drive to get there was a little bit hairy. Old Ore Rd. is an old dirt road that is not well maintained. In fact, it’s the worst road our truck has ever been on. Some of the ruts were 3 feet deep and there were boulders sticking up out of the road. Add to that the fact that the scrubby, thorny plant life encroaches on the road, and driving was a very slow process. After walking too many miles the day before though, we were trying to get as close to our destination as possible. Several times Paul got out of the truck and walked the road to see if he thought it would be passable. Eventually, the answer came back “no”, and we had to park the truck and walk the rest of the way. It wasn’t too bad though, we only ended up walking a couple of miles.

       Once we hiked back to the truck, was only a 3 mile ride to get to the hot springs. Unfortunately, by this time, it was about 89 degrees outside, but we decided that since we were that close, we had to go. This hot spring is located right next to the Rio Grande River, and we’ve been there before. I actually ended up splashing cold river water on me more than sitting in the hot spring, but we got to chat with some interesting people.







 After leaving there, we drove down Croton Spring Road. Most people who drive down that road are looking for the spring, but we were looking for something else. Paul had heard that there is a petro glyph on the underside of a boulder and he was on a mission to find it. Me, I was just tagging along, wishing that my GPS battery hadn’t died, so I could at least play with it as we walked another 2 miles.

       We did find the “Red Buffalo”, but I honestly thought the rock formations in that area were more fascinating. There were some that looked like prehistoric bowling balls. Another busy day in Big Bend.
     Although yesterday was supposed to be our “easy” day, it is a 60 mile drive just to get to the other side of the park, so while we were there, we wanted to make sure we did every thing we wanted to do on that side, so we wouldn’t have to go back.


        Today was the long day. We were on the road by 7:30 am, and on the trail by 8:45. Our goal was to hike the Southern rim of the Chisos Mountains. It’s a 12.5 mile hike, with 2000 ft of elevation gain, and it tops out at 7400 ft above sea level. This is the longest hike I have ever done, so I went through the packs and made sure that we really wanted to bring everything that was in them, because with the temperatures predicted to be in the high 80s, we needed to bring extra water (which is way too heavy). Even though the temperatures were still in the 50s when we started out, I left my sweatshirt behind, because I didn’t want to have to carry it after the first 30 minutes. It was a bit chilly at first, but after climbing for a while, suddenly it warmed up.

        We met, passed, and were passed by, several groups of people all day on the trail. We would pass them, and then when we took a break, they would pass us, etc. Sometimes we took a break at the same time and chatted with them for a few minutes. We followed closely behind a mountain lion for a little while, so I had my camera out, just in case we caught sight of him or her. We didn’t, but we saw the fresh prints on the trail and other evidence as well (apparently wild cats cough up fur balls and grass just like domestic cats).


cat tracks along the trail



       Once we made it to the rim, we relaxed and had lunch. There was a haze today that negatively impacted the visibility, but the views were still incredibly impressive. After about 7 hours, we arrived back in the parking lot, where we treated ourselves to an ice cream before heading home.





 

view from the South Rim trail



   We had a great visit to Big Bend, just like we did last time we were here. This time around we actually went out "on the town" in Terlingua. There’s a bar called La Kiva (the cave) that is partially underground, and has an area that IS a cave where you can sit and have a drink (we sat outside instead though). We went there for happy hour before heading to the Starlight Theatre for dinner. It’s called the Starlight Theatre because years ago, when the building was in ruins, and without a roof, they still began to have performances there, under the star light. Nowadays there is a roof, but the original walls are still there. Very interesting place. Dinner was good, although expensive.