Big Bend National Park, Big Bend, Texas
It is to a man’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel. ~ Proverbs 20:3
High winds at the campground that started last night just before bedtime and continued through today. Blaine pulled the slide in and I slept with my feet under the table again. Still, it was much better than listening to the slide cover flapping all night long. This was due to a portion of Winter Storm Kade touching us. Temperatures dropped dramatically overnight – by about 50 degrees from what we’d had during the day! But Fort Davis, which is our next destination, had 3-6” of snow dropped on them.
Our day today required layers of clothing, and our heavy coats. If I remember correctly, I think the high was only about 45, plus there was some drizzle, wind and no sun for more than half the day. Oh! And snow flurries! No day off in this Park, though, there’s simply too much to see and do! We did have to wait until after lunch to get out though.
But then we bundled up and off we went. After yesterday’s “easy” hikes, we made the decision to never go anywhere in this Park unless we’re wearing our hiking boots and carrying our sticks. 😊
As the week went on, it became more and more obvious that that was a very wise decision on our part!
By the time I worked on this post, it’d been almost two weeks.
I’ve since discarded the paperwork we had, and I can’t remember the name of the place.
But as you’ll see, there wasn’t much there to remember.
Our first stop was a trail close to home called, the Hot Springs Canyon Trail – at least the part to the overlook.
The entire trail is 3 miles one way, and you can drive to the Hot Springs via a Jeep-road (which we’ll do next). Nice trail! Great overlook of the Rio Grande! Just remember, what we can show you is only a small part of what we experience. If you want, try this experiment. . . .
Look outside your front door. Better yet, stand on your porch or in your yard with an unobstructed view. Now turn your head from side to side and look all around. Now form a circle with your entire hand right (or left), put it up to one of your eyes, close the other eye, and look straight ahead. That view? That’s the one you get with our pictures. Sad, but true.
We’re seen a lot of these,
but don’t know what they are.
Pretty though!
But sharp!
Now on to Hot Springs.
Not only is the road there designed more for Jeeps than cars, but it’s downright scary in places! Very narrow, very hair-pin-turny . . . well, you’ll see. Sort of. As with everything in this place, the pictures don’t do it justice.
The actual hot springs weren’t exactly as we’d pictured them, so I suppose it’s good it was a cold day, because originally we’d talked about taking our suits and sitting for a bit. You’ll see why we wouldn’t have done that soon. First you have to check out the area and then walk about a half mile through the old resort area and past some Indian rock art, before you get to the Springs.
from the days when the Springs were popular and weren’t part of the National Park.
As you can see, it’s a quarter-mile to get to the actual Springs!
That’s a long walk in a wet suit on a cold day!
But we saw people doing it . . . .
And even more surprised that they’ve survived all these years!
but we didn’t see any trinkets for sale here.
During the rest of our hike, we could look down on them and
there were quite a few people sitting in there.
Too close quarters for us. It would seem like sharing a bathtub with strangers!
Once you get to the Springs, you can either return the way you came, or continue on in a loop, which is a little bit further. What fun is returning passed things you’ve already seen, when you can explore new things? We were glad we did! Stunning views and some different things!
And different ones – – especially when you’re talking rocks!
It’s reversible! Pretty cool, huh? : )
There was still some time left in our day, but not enough to drive far, so we drove over in the direction of the Boquillas Canyon we visited yesterday. (Hard to believe we were wearing shorts and tees 24-hours ago!) We were looking for a trailhead we’d seen, but had no information on.
As we were driving towards the trailhead, I happened to look up to the hill on Blaine’s side of the Jeep and saw movement up near the top. I told Blaine to stop. And he did. Right in the middle of the road. There, near the top of the hill, were two mountain lions! What a wondrous surprise! They were too far away to even think about taking a picture, plus it only took a minute for them to amble their way over the top and disappear. We were joy-filled by the experience! It was then that we noticed that we were very near the Barker House (on the other side of the street) where we did our tour yesterday. 😊
Here’s some of what the Park’s newspaper says about them: Mountain lions are solitary and live throughout the park from mountain to desert, and biologists estimate a stable population of about two dozen lions. Everywhere in Big Bend, you are in the territory of at least one lion. Each year visitors report around 130 lion sightings in Big Bend National Park. Over half are seen along roadways, but encounters also occur along trails. Avoid hiking alone and at dusk and dawn.
With only 24 lions in the park, and them being solitary by nature, we felt the fact that we saw any, let alone two, was quite the blessing!
This trail was completely flat, but it was the most difficult of all the ones we’ve been on so far. It followed a river wash, and was nothing but deep loose gravel, that slides underfoot. Sort of like walking on soft sand – only worse.
We didn’t go far, but we did discover something interesting!
This is part of what’s left. Nice discovery!
And then we turned around and headed back.
Time to call it a day. Tomorrow the weather’s supposed to be much improved, but we still had another great (though chilly) day today! Thank You, Father for Your provision for us!