Big Bend National Park, TX

There is no shortage of hiking trails in Big Bend National Park. We spent a good portion of a day hiking a 5 mile trail called “the Window”. Within minutes of starting out we saw a Road Runner, and several deer. We met up with a couple who were on their way back who had seen, and actually gotten pictures of, a bear. She said he was about 15 feet away, looked up and saw them, and slowly meandered off. We looked really hard, but never saw him. Too bad. The view from the “window” was unique, since you can only see out through a square area that does look like a window. From there we went partway up a different trail and although not “unique”, the view was Fabulous! We ate lunch up there, then headed back, chatting with several groups along the way.

Back at the Visitors Center, while eating ice cream, we saw a herd of a very different kind of animal that lives in the park. They are called Javelinas. They look like very strange pigs but are not pigs at all. They are pretty aggressive, apparently, and can’t be domesticated.

Later that day, I wanted to test out the settings on my camera to see if I could capture the night sky, so after dark, Paul and I drove out past town, pulled over, and waited for our eyes to adjust to the dark. The sky was perfectly clear and the Milky Way was clear as day. Its been a long time since I have seen that many stars in the sky. As a bonus, the temperature  was still in the low 60s, so it wasn’t cold, either. I tried every combination of settings I could think of, and still couldn’t get a good picture. I’ll try again, but it was really disappointing. Paul patiently waited while I took pictures, but then he heard noises in the bushes and we both decided it was time to leave. There are definitely Cougars in the park, as well as coyotes. Every night I can hear the coyotes howling.

Our agenda for yesterday was to drive the scenic road that circles around part of the park. We started off by skating down a 13 mile stretch of dirt road. Looking behind the truck as we drove reminded me of the old westerns, where the truck kicks up a huge cloud of dust that leaves a trail behind the truck. That’s what we looked like. We could tell when a car came towards us by their cloud of dust. There were several stops for us to make along the way and the first one was the Santa Elena Canyon. The Rio Grande flows through this canyon, and the walls are over 1000 feet high. It was about a 1.5 mile hike into the canyon. Once inside, it was very peaceful and quiet. We explored for quite a while before coming back out. There was a lot of mud along the river, with animal tracks in it, so we spent some time trying to figure out what animals made the tracks.

We stopped at several historic buildings along the road, one of which was an old ranch, and one was a store, back in the early 1900s. It was really clear that back then, this area had what they call an “invisible border”. People from both countries moved back and forth pretty freely and no one paid much attention to the comings and goings. Very often, Mexicans would set up homes on land that belonged to someone else. Usually the rancher whose land it was didn’t mind, since it was more security for him and a source of labor when he needed it. There was a sense of cooperation.

Looking at all the “canyon” hikes there are to do here, I thought it would be a case of seen one, seen ‘em all, but the ones we have been to all have unique characteristics. Santa Elena Canyon has the Rio Grande running through it, Tuff Canyon is a canyon created from volcanic action, so there is a magma layer and a “tuff” layer. Tuff is essentially (white) volcanic ash that has hardened. When the volcano spewed, the ash settled over the magma and hardened. Once hardened, it’s very dense and acts like glue. What was cool at Tuff Canyon, was the rocks that were magma (red/brown) in the center, surrounded by white tuff. Pretty much looked like a rock within a rock. That canyon is mostly white due to the tuff, and is very narrow, because the density of the tuff kept the water from eroding the rock too much.

Burro Mesa Pour off is also a canyon, but it’s a box canyon. We hiked a mile or so into that canyon, and obviously came to a dead end, since it’s a box canyon. I was glad we didn’t run into a bear in THAT canyon.



Today we decided that we could handle another decent sized hike, so we got up a little early and headed out to the Lost Mine Trail (4.8 miles-6850 ft/1200ft elevation gain). This is the trail that has had the most bear and mountain lion sightings, but we weren’t lucky enough to see any. The views from the top were incredible, as usual, and we were done with the hike by lunch time. There were about 25 other people on the trail at the same time, some of whom were a little loud, so I was getting a little annoyed. We had decided last night that we would leave the afternoon free to just hang out and recuperate from all the activity. Unfortunately, Paul had to spend the afternoon trying to diagnose why the air conditioning in the truck isn’t working. He doesn’t have the tools to check it out, so we’ll have to bring it in for service in El Paso. Its due for another oil change anyway, so we’ll combine the two.

Tonight Paul is making Enchiladas and Margaritas.....yum!