Big Bend National Park

Big Bend National Park in Texas is in the middle of nowhere. If you want to go to Big Bend, you have to go to Big Bend. It is not like “Oh I have to go to Denver; I think I’ll go to Rocky Mountain National Park while I’m there.” The closest real city to Big Bend is El Paso, a six-hour drive. Long drive or not, I only had two parks left to complete every National Park in the lower 48 states, so I was going. Plus, I have rarely been disappointed by a National Park. Big Bend sure did not disappoint. It was well worth the trip, especially because I combined it with repeat visits to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas and Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. I will talk about them in my next posting.

Big Bend National Park got its name from the big bend that the Rio Grande River takes there. As you will recall from your elementary school geography lessons, the Rio Grande separates the United States and Mexico. The river passes through three canyons at the edge of the park, with two of them being accessible by paved road. Santa Elena Canyon is spectacular, cutting through the face of a large cliff. The cleft is visible for miles. There is a trail that goes about a mile into the canyon until is stopped by the sheer cliffs. The hike is good. I did not hike into Boquillas Canyon, mainly because it was getting late when I was there. The trail goes along the river for a while, and the opening is not as obvious as Santa Elena. The most spectacular thing about that section of the park is the huge cliffs of the Sierra del Carmen in Mexico.

One of the things people used to love doing at the park is buying craft items from Mexicans living across the river in Boquillas del Carmen. The main items are painted walking sticks and wire scorpions. Crossing the border is now illegal there and any Mexicans found over here will be escorted to a town 100 miles away to cross back. Of course, this does not stop them from crossing over to sell things. In the Boquillas Canyon Overlook parking lot, there are several rocks with handcrafted items on them and a money jar next to them. It is a constant back-and-forth between the merchants trying to sell something before the rangers see it and the rangers confiscating what they see.

As nice as the canyons are, the highlight of the park is the Chisos Mountains. The mountains rise pretty much from the middle of the desert. They are roughly circular in layout with the Chisos Basin in the middle. The park lodge is in the basin, and there are some fine hiking trails starting there. A curvy paved road takes you up to the basin. One of the first things you see when you get up there is the Window. The Window is a notch in the mountains from which the basin drains. Of course, I had heard about the Window from my reading, but I was not prepared for the huge size of it. The Window View Trail is a short paved trail that is a great place for sunset pictures. There is also a hiking trail that leads to the Window itself, but I did not take it.

The morning after I arrived in the park, I took the long hike to the South Rim. This is a 12.6-mile round trip that I expected to be very good. It was. The coolest thing about it is that the trailhead is right by the lodge. Usually I have to drive to the trailhead, put on my boots and daypack, hike, and then drive back all grungy. At Big Bend, I put everything on in my room, hiked the trail, and then had an immediate shower at the end. If this is not luxury, then I don’t what is. You can take the loop either clockwise, starting with the Pinnacles Trail, or counter-clockwise, starting with the Laguna Meadows Trail. I chose the latter. For the first part of the trail, I had good views of the Window, and then I plunged into the forest. I could see mountains above me, but the trail is relatively level. The trail is far enough from the edge that I did not see much of the terrain below until I got closer to the South Rim. I would not exactly call Laguna Meadows a meadow, but there is some grass among the trees. The hike is quite pleasant. At about the 6-mile point I got to a sign that said “South Rim.” “What South Rim?” I said to myself. There was a short trail that headed uphill, so I took it. Wow! The desert spread out before me from high atop a cliff. It was one of the most spectacular vistas I have ever seen. It would have been better if the weather weren’t a bit on the rainy side, but still it was great. On a clear day, you should be able to see the Santa Elena Canyon and well into Mexico. After taking in the view and having a snack, I headed back on the Pinnacles Trail. It was a bit rougher than the Laguna Meadows Trail. I stopped to eat lunch on the steps up to Emory Peak. It was starting to rain by then, so I skipped the peak. After a while I got back to the trailhead and took that luxurious shower I was talking about earlier.

Later that day, I drove over to the Boquillas Canyon, and the next day I drove to Santa Elena Canyon via the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. There was a great view of the other side of the Window from the road. I made several stops on the way to and back from the Canyon. My first stop was the Upper Burro Mesa Pour-Off, a 3.6-mile hike that goes to the top of a dry waterfall. Just before the end, I had to climb down a fairly slick 12-foot drop and hope that I could get back up. Since you are reading this, you know that my boots had enough traction for the job. Next I took a 0.8-mile hike into Tuff Canyon. Tuff is a light volcanic breccia. After my hike in Santa Elena Canyon, I took the 1-mile Burro Mesa Pour-Off Trail. This trail ends at the bottom of the dry waterfall that I was at earlier in the day. Other sites along then road that I saw were the Sam Nail Ranch, the Homer Wilson Ranch, the Mule Ears Viewpoint, and the Sotol Vista Overlook.

The next day, I left the park to return to El Paso. I entered the park from the north, so I exited from the west to get a different view. Far-away Santa Elena Canyon dominated my view as I left the park, with the Window in my rear-view mirror. It was a beautiful end to a fantastic visit. I went to Big Bend chiefly because I needed to visit it to be one park closer to fulfilling my quest, but I left it wanting to come back. For more pictures, with captions, see my Flickr page.

My visit: May 2009

Astounding Scenery

In my last entry, I talked about my favorite National Parks. I considered each park as a whole in choosing the parks. There are many other park that don't make that list but do have some astounding scenery. By astounding, I mean astounding, not pretty or nice or anything else. I am talking about blow-me-away scenery. This posting is devoted to those parks. I do not offer any photos because they would simply not do justice to the scenery.

Number one on my list of astounding scenery is Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Bryce Canyon is not really a canyon. It is the side of a plateau, a one-sided canyon if you will. It is not just a plain old side, though. The rock is in varying shades from white to yellow to brown, and fantastic shapes have been carved into that rock. Standing on the rim, you see these colors and shapes and a view that stretches forever. Astounding.

A close number two is Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. Crater Lake is a mountain lake that rests in the collapsed volcanic cone of Mount Mazama in the Cascade Mountain Range. For years I had heard that is was so blue, so pretty, blah, blah, blah. I usually don't believe anything that is hyped so much. I was so wrong. We entered the park from the north and took the road towards the rim road that circles the lake. At the Grouse Hill pull-off, I got my first view of the lake. I was amazed. It really is as blue as people say. The pictures do not do it justice. You need to go there and see it for yourself.

Next on the list is Yosemite National Park in California. Yosemite is the most over-hyped park on the face of the Earth. Because of this hype, I was not enjoying the park as much as I expected. No matter how beautiful, living up to this much hype is nearly impossible - nearly. On my last day there I was heading for the South entrance to continue on to Kings Canyon National Park. Naturally, I took this chance to drive to Glacier Point. Wow! I tend not to use the term breath-taking, but there is no other term to use when standing at Glacier Point looking down at the whole valley.

In fourth place is Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Unless you live under a rock, you know what the Grand Canyon looks like. Everyone has seen it countless times on TV and movies. However, this does not prepare you for seeing it in person. Your eyes see in three dimensions, and more importantly have a 180 degree angle of vision, much more than a movie camera. The canyon is huge, and it completely fills your vision. Astounding!

No list is complete without an honorable mention. Having been to so many National Parks, I don't expect to be amazed any more. Thankfully, I can still be. On my recent trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas, I hiked to the South Rim of the Chisos Mountains. The Chisos Mountains rise pretty much from the middle of a desert, so you might expect the view from something called "The South Rim" to be pretty good. Pretty good indeed. Spectacular is more like it. I give this view an honorable mention because it is a notch less grand than the other views, and mainly because the effect was as much from surprise as it was from splendor. I hiked about seven miles without seeing much in the way of views, and then I came to a sign that said "South Rim." I didn't see any south rim, but there was a trail heading up a slight incline, presumably to the edge of the cliff. When I got to the top, a spectacular "top-of-the-world" view opened up. Definitely worth the trip.