Big Bend Wrap-up and Moving On

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

Our stay in the Big Bend area was coming to a close but there were a couple more days to fit some more adventures in. We decided to try a desert bike ride since we haven't tried one of those yet. Some of the better biking trails are located in Big Bend Ranch State Park. I had found a detailed set of bike routes with maps, descriptions and trail ratings. We picked an 11 mile loop off the West Contrabando trailhead. Since we had to stop at the visitor center to get our window sticker for the day, we told the one ranger what we were planning. He asked another ranger in the office to come out and discuss this with us.

After telling her of our planned ride, she shook her head and told us that was a bad idea.  Possibly she had sized us up and decided these two were not in any condition to try our route. The description we had found was out of date and did not rate the trails very well. She instead suggested a ride out of the East Contrabando trailhead just a few hundred feet down the road from where we were. It is basically an out and back route along what had used to be a road. At multiple points along the way, there was a singletrack trail to follow that more or less was parallel with the direction of the road. In fact she told us that some sections of the road were in such rough shape we should only consider the trail.

After getting over to the parking area and getting the bikes and our food and drinks loaded, we were off. The temperature was pleasant and not too breezy. I had my GoPro set to do a 2 second time lapse video. It was strange to be riding in the desert but the trail was easy enough to identify so as to not just wander off aimlessly. After the first 15 minutes of riding I found I needed to walk my bike over/thru/up a few obstacles and Chris was needing to do so even more often. And here the ranger had said this was the easy trail - guess we should be grateful we didn't go with the original plan. We decided to push on and just take our time.

Beautiful Views Along the Way

The views were stunning but desolate there were no signs of others anywhere to be found. If something bad happened, who knows how long before we would be found? Our goal was to make it out to an old abandoned mine about 7 to 8 miles from the trailhead and have our lunch. About 1/3 of the way there, I had my first 'incident'. I was heading up a short steep section of singletrack and thought I was successfully navigating the fist sized rocks. But at one point my front tire hit a big enough rock squarely and it brought me to a standstill. With my feet clipped into my pedals, there wasn't much that could be done but to do a slow fall onto my left side. The good news was I only fell on dirt and rocks. A cactus would have been so much more painful. I slowly got up, checked for blood and decided I would live.

Chris Crossing a Big Field of Feldspar

About halfway to the mine, we were back on the old dirt road and it was now in mostly good condition or at least it was wide enough that you could pick your preferred path while riding. The number of times we needed to dismount had reduced dramatically. The route was never very steep but it seemed like we gradually gaining elevation. By the time we got to the old mine, we had climbed 600 feet according to my GPSr.

Distant View Near the Mine

The Whit-Roy Cinnabar Mine isn't as old as many others in the general area. Most of the other cinnabar mines were from the time of WWI and WWII. This mine was opened in 1970 but only ran for a couple years before the demand for mercury had declined. It was interesting to see the old structures and abandoned pieces of machinery and vehicles.

Good Fixer Upper

Part of the Mine

Pickup Complete with Engine

Other Side of Mine

We found a bit of shade to eat our lunch before we hopped on the bikes and headed back. The ride back was much easier. The gradual downhill made many of the sections more rideable and no additional falls took place. After loading the bikes on the car, we stopped in the small town of Lajitas. We had heard of a good bakery in a little town square but alas it, like most other stores there, was not open this afternoon.

Our Shady Lunch Spot - I Only Take Chris to the Finest Places!

The next day we decided to return to hiking. The road rash I received was not too bad and there were more trails in the National Park to check out on our last full day here. First stop was Chimneys Trail. This trail is 7.4 miles one way, but we really only wanted to check out the 'Chimneys' a mere 2.4 miles from the trailhead. This is a trail that heads mainly downhill but we will only lose ~400 feet in the distance to our destination. We ran into one family heading back as we headed out. Other than some birds, the only other creature we saw was a tarantula. It was just heading down the trail.

Tarantula Hiking With Us

The 'Chimneys' are some large rock outcropping jutting out from the desert floor. Miles behind them you can pick out Santa Elena Canyon and its massive walls. The trail goes between a large singular chimney that has old Indian writings on the rock face. Good thing decoding it wasn't needed since we couldn't make heads or tails of it. 

Approaching Chimneys with Santa Elena in the Distance

Chimney and Wispy Clouds

Indian Writings

On the other side of the trail are a series of chimneys. The closest one had a need stone window that needed to be photographed. While we were exploring these, a couple women with backpacks were heading past the chimneys and apparently are doing the full length of the trail. Hope they have a second vehicle at the other end. The walk back to the car was not too bad even though it was uphill. It wasn't until we were within the last 1/4 mile that we could see the Jeep sitting there waiting for us.

Window in Chimney

Chris Checks Out the View

A quick drive to an overlook for our lunch then off to our next hike. Burro Spring Trail is a 2.4 mile loop trail around a smaller mountain peak. We decided to go counter clockwise around the loop mainly since we never saw the trail to go the other way. About 1/4 of the way around, a guy was walking back towards us. We stopped to talk and he asked if this was a loop trail. Yup, that's our understanding. Well he got to the backside of the mountain where the spring supposedly is and lost the trail and opted to turn around.

Flowers Along Trail

Cactus Grows On Top Of Rock

We continued on and in my head I was thinking we will show him and follow the loop around - even though we will never see him again. The views were nice and there were some interesting plants along the way. When we got to the area of the spring, we too were having trouble figuring out the direction of the path. When the trail dumps you into a washed out ravine, it is tough to identify where to pick it up again. We spent a good 15 minutes looking around but at no point could we determine the intended route and most options had very steep drop offs to contend with. We too decided it was best to turn back and retrace our steps.

View From Back of Burro Spring 

Mountains at Every Turn

We had another planned hike, but decided it made more sense to call it a day and head back to camp since we had lots to do preparing for our travels the next few days. Our next significant stop was on the far western side of New Mexico very near the Arizona state line. It would be a few days drive. Normally we might just do boondocking stops at a Walmart or rest stop, but with the cold nighttime temperatures we decided it might be nicer to stay at campgrounds where we could have full use of our rig.

We picked a small campground, Desert Willow RV Park, in Van Horn Texas. The drive there will force us to backtrack about 80 miles north to Alpine before heading along US-90 in a northwesterly direction. Not surprisingly, this route is generally complete desolation with a small town scattered here and there. There were a few sights to see along the way. The first was the town of Marfa. I don't think the town itself is all that big but apparently they have strange lights that show up around the area. Called the Marfa Lights, many people come here to view them. We even stopped at a rest area just outside town for lunch and there were spotting scopes so you could look for them. Being noon, we weren't going to get to experience them, but maybe we will add this to our list and plan an overnight stop in the future.

Another site along the way was a tethered, unmanned blimp 20 miles out of Marfa. I had actually seen a stationary blimp a couple weeks ago when were were in the nearby Davis Mountains but wasn't sure what it was. Apparently it is put up (weather permitting) to monitor for low flying aircraft that would otherwise be missed by radar. Apparently drug smuggling is common in this region. Unfortunately even though a geocache is located along the road, the shoulder here was not quite wide enough for our rig so we only snapped a blurry photo while driving by. I guess the winds were too strong to have it be up.

Surveillance Blimp Grounded

The highlight of the trip was the Marfa Prada "store". Not sure why it is associated with Marfa since it's a good 30 miles away. Oh maybe that's because there is NOTHING else around here. I remember seeing this place on some TV program about odd roadside attractions. Little did I know we would be making it by here someday. Road construction along this stretch nearly prevented us from stopping but we managed to fit in between a couple construction barrels and stay on a firm section of road. Even though we haven't seen many other vehicles along this route, another car pulled in just as we did.

We took the obligatory photos and even got one with both of us thanks to the other visitors. Apparently this is some piece of "art" that actually has a few pairs of shoes and handbags behind the glass windows, but it is never opened. I have included a Google Earth view just to prove how isolated this place really is.

Let's Go Shopping

The Rutters at the Store

Explanation?

Prada from Above

The rest of the drive into Van Horn went well. This stop gets us back onto Interstate 10 so we may continue west. The campground was situated between I-10 and a fairly active train track. Good thing its cold enough the windows will be closed tonight. We had seen that there is a Chuys restaurant in town. We have eaten at ones in Austin and San Antonio and it seemed odd that one would be in this small of a town. We went only to discover it really isn't part of the same chain, but we were hungry and the food turned out to be good. The odd thing about this place is that it had an enormous amount of John Madden memorabilia here. He was known for never flying anywhere during his years in sports, and apparently when he came by here on I-10, he would stop for a meal. Our table was right next to a big mural painted on the brick wall with Madden's bus parked next to the restaurant and Jesus rising up over the mountains just north of town. Just a slightly strange combo.

Mural at Our Table at Chuys