More From Big Bend

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Entrance to Big Bend National Park

We spent another day in the national park with one real mission - the Lost Mine Trail. This is one of the most popular hikes and it showed. When we pulled up on a Wednesday morning, we nabbed the last legal parking spot. The hike is 2.4 miles one way and if you don't fall over the edge, it should be 2.4 miles on the way back as well! It does involve a fair amount of elevation gain. It starts at roughly 5800 feet and goes up another 1000 feet.

View to North Shortly After Starting

This is the View Most of Way Up Lost Mine Trail

It was a picture perfect day with pleasant mid 70's temperatures. The signs at the start of the hike warning of black bears and mountain lions didn't dissuade us from our mission. Plus with all these other hikers out, surely the predators were well fed by now. I have now discovered a good trick for catching my breath on hikes like this. I stop and take pictures along the way at each incredible view and on this hike that was frequent.

Rocks Had Bright Lichens Growing

The trail was constructed by the CCC back in the early 1940's and some of the stone work is very impressive. One stretch seemed to just have switchback after switchback, but I suppose that was better than the straight up alternative. We must be in reasonable shape because even with all our picture stops, we managed to pass several other couples along the way. At the top we sat and talked with a few others as we took in the views.

Once at the Top the View Is Great

Sometimes we find the hike down a hill more challenging than the one up, but this one was in such good shape that we had no issues coming down. From there, we headed a little further into the park to do one of the Ranger talks that we thought might be interesting - an hour long session learning about the signs animals leave, be it tracks or scat. This turned out to be a small group with only six of us plus the ranger. By the time this session started, it was very hot and sunny. So we started to head to the one picnic table that was in the shade only to we forced back by a large rattlesnake coiled up under a fallen tree along our path. It had hidden pretty well so we couldn't get pictures, but the ranger didn't want to risk any of us becoming a casualty. I suppose if it had struck one of us, being with a ranger was about as good of insurance as we could ask for.

Impressive All-Terrain Camper at Visitor Center

He had brought along plenty of samples of fake poop and had drawings of the most common animal tracks. After a ten or fifteen minute talk, we headed out into the desert along the nature trail at Dugout Wells picnic area. The terrain there is more rocky than sandy, so spotting tracks was not very easy. The slow half mile walk probably would look strange to others passing by. The seven of us were walking with our heads pointed down to the ground looking for shit! Literally.

Our Group Looking for Shit

About the Only Tracks Seen Today

We ended up discovering one pair of women on the walk also live full time in their Newmar Dutch Star and have been for the last 8 years. We stayed after and chatted with them about their experiences. It's nice to meet others like us. It makes us feel a little less crazy for living this lifestyle.

The next day we decide to at least check out the state park to the west of our campgrounds. The real interior of this park is rather remote and would take nearly two hours to get to by car with the last 25 miles being a rough dirt road and this only gets you to the other visitor center. But there were plenty of things worth seeing along the main road adjacent to the Rio Grande River. The first stop is at the Barton Warnock visitor center. Our annual Texas State pass gets us a window sticker, but it's only good for one day at a time. I guess that's okay since any future visits will require us to drive right by the place. The center has a garden with lots of plants we have been seeing on our walks. This way they are all in one place and some are even identified. Good thing we weren't planning on heading to the interior portions of the park. It was off limits for some quail hunting that day.

A Walking Path Overlooking Visitor Center

Desolate Landscape

Colorful Cactus

The drive along Texas Route 170 is basically along the southern boundary of the park and is a public road. It isn't until you park at one of the trailheads and visit the park that requires you to have the window sticker. At many locations you are right next to the Rio Grande River looking over into Mexico. Being the dry season may have contributed to the fact that this river is not very impressive. It's not anything like the Ohio or Mississippi Rivers. Our first stop was a little rest area with interesting tepees for the picnic tables. 

Our Lunch Teepee

Chris Contemplates Escaping to Mexico

One of the more interesting hikes we had read about was Closed Canyon Trail. It is a slot Canyon worn away by water over the years as it heads south to the Rio Grande. Having been dry for sometime, and no rain expected, we were not concerned about a flash flood turning our hike to a water ride. The canyon is narrow in spots, not much more than 8 feet or so, and with walls extending overhead nearly 100 feet, the feeling is a bit strange as you hike down the slot.

Entrance to Closed Canyon

View Along the Way Down

We only ran into one other couple as they were heading out. The trail was either a pea size gravel or highly polished rock at some of the drop offs. We would hear the occasional bird call out sounding strange with the echo effect of the canyon. It seemed that the further we headed into the canyon, the larger the drop offs got. Chris commented at one of them that she knew she could safely slide down the smooth rock, but wasn't sure how she was going to get back out.

At Our Turnaround Point

Narrow Path

Apparently the drops get so severe towards the end that one needs climbing ropes to safely get through them. We opted to get nowhere near that far. At the first big drop that had a huge puddle underneath, I realized we should turn back to avoid wet feet or worse. With a little help, Chris managed to crawl up the ones she was worried about and we safely made it back to the car.

Next stop along the way was Hoodoos Trail. There are some impressive hoodoos close to the parking lot and trailhead. It turned out that these were the only ones along the mile trail. 

Impressive Stonework

Hoodoo

On our way back to camp, we stopped at a place we had zipped right by the first time by - the Contrabando Movie Set. Constructed in 1985 for the film “Uphill all the Way”, little remains from this old movie set except for one building that is now maintained by the park. It was a neat setting and you could easily see how it would be used for a western movie.

Views Like This Everywhere You Look

Remaining House from Contrabando Movie Set

Even Has Spot for Your Horse

A mile or so down a dirt road next to our campground was a geocache called "Dinosaur Egg?" Since we have been going nonstop since arriving in the Big Bend area, we decided to make one day be a bit more relaxed. So we drove down the road and parked near a huge, roundish boulder that I suppose could look like an egg. In fact the thing looks like it has a crack or two in its shell just reinforcing that impression.

Chris Stands in Front for Scale

Dinosaur Egg Appears to Be Cracking

The cache turned out to be a short scramble up a hill and was next to a big prickly pear cactus. As I was searching, I wasn't too concerned about the cactus since this one doesn't have needles like other cactus. After finding the well hidden container and signing in, I started to feel this prickling sensation all over - my hands, my back and my leg. But we were on a mission to go find some ancient Indian artifacts just inside the National Park so I shoved the pain out of my mind.

It turns out this road ends at Big Bend National Park property, but there is an opening in the fence to allow pedestrians to enter. The geocache we had done had provided coordinates to a cave opening where some of the artifacts could be found. This is definitely not something any of the park maps or newsletters point out, so we felt like we had an inside scoop others don't get. The hike along the desert was a hot one but we didn't need to go more than a half mile or so. Sure enough, we found the small cave opening and once out eyes adjusted to the lower light conditions, we spotted what we were looking for. How cool was that?

Lots of Swiss Cheese Rocks

Final Resting Place of Rocks

Indian Writing with Hand Prints Lower Right

More Old Indian Writings

That evening back in camp, the itching sensation was driving me batty. Inspecting the sensitive areas, I could not see anything but could feel them when brushing a finger over them. Later that night I discovered they are called glochids. Tiny barbed spines that are difficult to remove once stuck in the skin. Washing did absolutely nothing, so next was packing tape pressed firmly to the skin and then yanked off as if I were waxing. This help a bit but many areas on my fingers were still covered with them. My next attempt was to dig out my wood workers glue and spread a thin film over the offending locations. After the glue dried, I yanked it of and discovered the problem was gone. Lesson learned. Just because the blind prickly pear cactus has no obvious needles, they should be avoided at all costs.