Wednesday 3/9/11

The narrative today will be abbreviated because it was somehow deleted from the blog, and at nearly midnight on Friday, 3/11/11, Karen and Cam don’t have the energy to start from scratch.  Briefly, we took a quick drive through the Terlingua ghost town this morning, then aimed the truck 30 miles south to Big Bend National Park (BBNP).

Home Sweet Home for us this night.

We arrived in the park a little too early for check-in to our hotel, the Chisos Mountains Lodge. So, we ventured out on the Lost Mine Trail.  The trail had numbers posted periodically along the path that identified the various plants.  There are more species of cacti in BBNP than in any other national park in the country.  From several vantage points we could see all the way into Mexico.  In retrospect, this was one of our favorite hikes in the park.  The views at the end were inspirational, and we met a very nice Canadian couple who spent 2 years living and traveling in their RV.  We ate our bag lunches at the top, then descended with 2 men named Ben (one owns a tree and shrub company, the other works for the company).  We enjoyed comparing notes on our various hiking, mountain biking, and camping experiences.   This 5 mile hike took long enough that when we finished, we were able to check into our hotel.

There was a group of 17 cyclists from Austin staying at the lodge for several days of cycling through the park.  They invited us to join them in the morning.  However, Karen noted that we have 8 days of cycling ahead of us in Fredericksburg, and we may not make it back to BBNP anytime soon.  So, we will hit the trails on foot again tomorrow.

After a little break from the first hike, we were ready for an additional 5 miles on the Window Trail.  The path follows the Oak Creek Canyon drainage west to the Window pour-off.  The terminus of the trail is a series of man-made steps down a dry waterfall which empties out onto the canyon below.  The “window” is the signature photo image of BBNP.

After showering and relaxing on the balcony of our room, we had a window seat in the Chisos Mountains Restaurant, and enjoyed watching the sun set as we ate a leisurely meal.

We drove 97 miles today.