Big Bend National Park

The second part of my trip to south and west Texas was to Big Bend National Park. Becky told me I couldn’t go to Big Bend alone, so my brother flew to San Antonio (from Oklahoma City) and I picked him up. We drove to Terlingua, TX, (through parts of Texas that contain a whole lot of nothing) where we had lodgings at Big Bend Resort and Adventures, which is a decent lodging for a place like Terlingua. Neither of us was keen on camping – too old for that.

We hiked the Grapevine Hills/Balanced Rock trail our first morning – an easy trail along an arroyo until the last quarter mile, when it goes steeply uphill to the Balanced Rock.

In the afternoon we drove the Ross Maxwell scenic drive to Sotol Vista, Mule Ears, and ended up at Santa Elena Canyon. This is an impressive canyon.

Here is a view of Sotol Vista.

Here are the Mule Ears.

And Santa Elena Canyon.

Here is the Rio Grande. Mexico on the right, US on the left.

Here is one for Becky.

Our second morning we hiked the Chimneys trail.

There are petroglyphs on one of the Chimneys.

We had a raft trip on the Rio Grande on the second afternoon, but I didn’t take my camera, so I don’t have any photos from that trip. I will post some images from my 1998 January Term Desert Biology course when I have a chance to scan the slides (yes these are actual 35mm color slides with Fujifilm).

The third morning we walked part of the Pinnacles trail, which goes up into the Boot Canyon part of the Chisos. We got to the point where the switchbacks go up the actual Pinnacles, and decided we were not keen on that level of effort, so we had a snack and a rest, and turned back toward the trailhead.

A view of Boot Canyon from a trip a long time ago.

And of the South Rim

And Casa Grande