Seminole Canyon State Park, Texas
Thursday, April 14th, 2011April 7th-8th
We stopped in Del Rio, the last big city, and border town with Mexico to buy some groceries and camping supplies. We have not been able to find the propane canister for our backpacking stove and might be forced to go to plan B as the options are getting slimmer. There was a cloud of dust or smoke- we weren’t really sure- hanging over the city and it didn’t seem particularly inviting.
When we arrived at Seminole Canyon SP the Ranger Station was closed, so we went directly to our campground. The landscape was dramatically different from Hill Country. There were no trees to shade our site or give us privacy from our neighbors, just some desert shrubbery and a shelter covering the picnic table. And it was extremely hot and windy. By the time we got camp set up and were having dinner, the sun went down and the sky turned a beautiful pink and orange color. We took advantage of the park wi-fi to read some news online. The budget disagreement and pending government shut-down were our main concern as it would affect our plans to go to Big Bend.
The next morning, Fabien went for a 6-mile run that followed a path to the Rio Grande River while I organized some of our food supplies and starting packing up camp. (Even though we are in a good routine now, there are still a lot of things to organize each day.) At 10AM we did a guided hike down into the canyon to the Fate Bell Rockshelter to see the pictographs that were painted by ancient nomadic peoples that lived there about 8,000 years ago. The pictographs were of animals and people. Our guide also showed us some of the plants that they ate and used for cleaning (sodol and cactus fruit,) how to start a friction fire and how they through spears using the atlatl which was basically an extension of you arm helping you throw further. By the end of the hike (around 11:30), the sun was heating up. When we got pack to the campsite our thermometer read 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
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