Big Bend

Big Bend turned out to be pretty neat, and we did quite a bit while we were there.  We stayed nine nights in three different locations – two down on the river and one up in the Chisos Mountains.  Once we left Lonesome Dove behind we stayed in the center of the Park.  The Chisos Mountains ae a 25-75 million year old volcanic intrusion surrounded by desert.  The campground is in a depression at the upper elevations (requiring a descent/ascent with 15% grades for the old cramper) and is really scenic.  We did two hikes a day out ofhere and all were well worth it.   From there we went to the east side of the park, and back down to river level.  We had two days where the car themometer read 100 degrees (but it’s a dry heat), so that slowed down the hiking somewhat.  Good photography though – for the half hour before sunset and the half hour after sunrise.  The rest of the time we followed the shade around the cramper and waited for the roadrunners to come by.  One bad thing about Big Bend is that much of it is only accessable on gravel roads that are not very good.  We missed out on a couple of places just because we couldn’t get there.

From Big Bend we took a whole day to get to Falcon Dam.  Spent a couple days there chasing birds and now we’re in Weslaco in the Rio Grande Valley.  Somewhere along the way we crossed the 100th meridian and are now back in the land of humidity (Stegner was right – imagine that!)  Good birding here and we’ll probably be here a week or so.  We got in last night just in time for the hundred year thunderstorm.  McAllen, just to the west of here got hit pretty hard with hail and flooding, but nothing right here.  We were in the cramper, so weren’t worried about tornados.

Santa Elana Canyon

                                                                                                                                                                                                         The Window

                                                                                                                                                                                                         Chisos Mountains

                                                                                                                                                                                                       In The Window

                                                                                                                                                                                                   Metamorphics

                                                                                                                                                                         The Goods

                                                                                                                                                  Delivering The Goods

                                                                                                                                                                      Black Hawk

                                                                                                                                                  Balanced Rock

                                                                                                                                            Scissortail Flycatcher