Big Bend National Park, Texas, Day 1-2
April 8th
We left Seminole Canyon after lunch to make the long drive on Texas Road 90 to Big Bend National Park. The potential government shut-down had us worried because it would have effectively closed the park. At the visitors’ center in Langtry, they assured us that if we arrived on Friday night, the park would let us stay for the weekend even if the services were limited.
The landscape on 90 was other-worldly. We stopped at the Pecos River Bridge to snap some pictures of the crystal blue waters cutting through the deep canyon. There were few towns and few cars on the road as we drove the 250 miles to Big Bend. We stopped in Marathon (the gateway town) to fill up on gas and buy a few groceries. The gas was $4.08/gallon (about 50 cents more expensive than in other parts of Texas) and the groceries suffered a similar mark-up.
On the road into the park, we crossed a javelina (a boar-like animal common to this area.) Luckily, Fabien was able to slow down in time as it casually crossed the road. The entrance station was closed and directed us to Panther Junction Visitor Center (about 25 miles inside the park.) We got there just before closing, bought our National Parks Pass, and got a recommendation for camping at Chisos Basin which was about another 9 miles. We climbed a little bit to 5400 feet (1646m) and found a very nice organized campground. This is our first time camping in a national park, and as I assured Fabien before the facilities are fantastic (there are a lot of options for recycling here including propane bottles.) We were very disappointed that Texas State Parks didn’t offer any options for recycling. In fact the best State Parks to date were in Florida.
We set up camp, met our neighbors from Pensacola, had a cold beer after the long, hot drive and made dinner. After dinner we stored everything in the bear storage lockers. (This is black bear country and all food products have to be stored in a locker or in a locked car.) Then we went to hear the evening talk: “Vultures, the road-kill clean-up crew” at the campground amphitheater. The talk, led by an extremely well-informed park volunteer, was extremely topical considering that we had probably crossed four dead animals on the road that day being eaten by vultures. The turkey vulture, with a red head, is the most common in the park and can be seen soaring above the valley at most times of the day.
Then we turned in for the night- both of us had a rough night of sleep. Maybe it was due to the heat and the change in altitude. I was pretty convinced I heard a bear outside the tent. My neighbor thinks it was a javelina.
April 9th
The morning was cool (around 60) and a little bit cloudy. At breakfast we found an Australian station on am radio that informed us that congress had come to an agreement on the budget. We didn’t have cell phone access or receive radio stations (except a couple of Mexican stations and the Australian international station- bizarre.) That morning we did a very popular park trail called the “Window Trail.” It actually had a trail head in our campground and just as we started the hike we saw three white-tail deer and two javelinas. The trail was fairly easy with a slow descent following an old river bed towards the “window,” an opening between two mountains peering out on to the Chihuahuan Desert. We were on the look-out for black bears and mountain lions, both of which are common to the area, but we didn’t see any. We did see a lot of birds and a lizard. The vegetation is impressive, a mix of juniper trees and desert vegetation (like prickly pear cactii, sodol and agave plants) and the clay colored-mountains with the blue-sky backdrop were awe-inspiring.
On the return, rather than stopping at the campground, we hiked up to the Visitors’ Center to get our backcountry pass to do some overnight trekking. The ranger was extremely helpful and issued us a 4-day pass to do some backcountry camping in Chisos Mountains and then to do some off-road car camping by the Rio Grande. We hiked back down to the campground and spent the afternoon playing scrabble in the shade and getting our gear ready for the following day’s hike.
Tags: BIG TRIP 2011, Texas
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