When we are in the little house that moves, I have a little
bed. I fit on it but sometimes I like to
hang over on a human. They let me do it
too.
It is still dark when my cheery Spouse gets up to start the
coffee. On the one day I can sleep, we
want to get an early start on a hike before the heat sets in. ARGH!
We get ready and are out the door by about 6:30. It is still dark as we make our way to Big
Bend. We intend to hike the Chisos Basin
area. Wait! I think that is a javelina that just ran
across the road! Wow! Anyway, This area is mountainous, created by
volcanoes that are long since extinct.
As we turn up the road, we see a sign that the road will be closed from
8 am till 11 am all week. It isn’t even
7:30 so we beat the closure. It is a
windy road with some hair pin curves. We
plan to hike to the Window. This is a 5
mile moderate hike (total, in and out).
Since we left without eating breakfast, we pack an apple and
some string cheese and chomped some cashews before we headed out. Spouse packed a backpack with every piece of
survival gear on the planet and we headed out.
It is a cool 58 degrees. It starts out going downhill… which means we will be coming uphill in the heat when we are tired. Oh well. From the top, it looks like a desert terrain surrounded by tall rocky crags. We follow the trail down and surprisingly, there seems to be lots of shade. The desert scrub is tall, and even has a few oaks and other tall trees. It is a gentle decline and as we get about 2/3 of the way down, the trail runs alongside a dry creekbed. WE are now enveloped in a canopy of shade from the riparian vegetation. The canyon narrows as we turn onto a series of finely polished stone pools carved from rushing water. Stairs have been carved so that we can navigate around the pools to the next set of pools, then another set of pools that exit between two enormous cliffs – the Window. I am thinking when it rains, this is a rushing river that exits out the Window into a massive waterfall. It is absolutely beautiful.
As much as I want to get a better look out the window, there is something about smooth polished slippery stone that keeps me at a healthy distance from the end! That, and Spouse having a caniption fit with every step I take keeps me honest! We stopped to enjoy our snack before we started the trek back up. It is much longer going back up, and the sun is higher so there is a less shade. But amazingly enough, it was not too hot. The last mile went on forever, which is usually the case with all long hikes! We got back to the truck around noon and it was 77 degrees.
At one point on the return, Spouse wanted me to carry the
backpack. So we switched, and I gave him
the binoculars I was carrying. About 5
minutes later, I hear him calling me asking me where the binoculars were. He is nearly deaf now, and I shouted that I
gave them to him and he was frantic because he couldn’t find them. I had a big decision to make at this
point… Do I tell him that they are
hanging across his chest a la Pancho Villa, or do I let him go back and try to
find them… I decide to tell him which
meant yelling. YELLING. YELLING!
Poor guy!
After lunch at a nearby campground, where my
spouse tried to run over a boulder – again – we decided that since we were so
far into the park, we would check out the Rio Grande Village area. There is a tourist thing at Boquillas Canyon
where you can ferry into Mexico for a meal and come back. It would be too late for today but we could
check it out and figure out when to do it.
The ride over there changes from high desert to ugly desert. Might as well be in the Mojave desert. We stop at a Rio Grande overlook and that was laughable as the river can’t even be
seen. All you can see is the green of
trees along the river. We went into the
village and the river crossing is closed, probably due to Covid. I am so glad we checked this out while we
were so far into the park as I would have hated to make a special trip out that
way only to be disappointed. We did go
to the Boquillas Canyon overlook. There,
a local makes artistic trinkets, and if you want some, you are on your honor to
pay. I feel so bad that the tourism has
dried up for these poor people that I bought a cute trinket that I did not
need. People probably thought that I was
a thief as I had to go into the money jar to make change, but I was honest!
One more stop before we head back for the day. The fossil exhibit called us. Did you know Big Bend National Park is one of
the most prolific provider of dinosaur fossils?
They have a gryposaurus… I think that is an old person that gets cranky…
Were you able to identify the snake image?
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