hiking – Page 4 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

Oh What to DO?

Current Location: Tulare, CA, sunny and 96 degrees F

Settled down for the evening in hot, dry, sunny Tulare, California. We began our day in Lee Vining, on the east side of the Sierras, and treated ourselves to an early dawn crossing of Tioga Pass, through Yosemite and down the mountain to the Great Central Valley.

A family event called Mo to this area and Abby and I are comfortable in the MoHo at Sun and Fun RV Park, with our Passport America discount, air conditioner going full blast. Ahh…yes…time to process photos and write. Trying to come up with something to do in Tulare, California isn’t very high on the agenda, at least not on my agenda. I am looking forward to our journey back north tomorrow morning.

In the mean time, I’ll go back and think of all the things to do in Great Basin National Park. We barely touched the surface in our four days we spent this week, but we did manage the highlights.

Visit Lehman Caves

From what I have read, it seems that the Lehman Caves are the major draw to this area for people who are not avid hikers. There are two cave tours, a 45 minute tour and the full Grand Palace Tour that lasts approximately 90 minutes. With our senior passes we only paid $5.00 each for the grand tour.

Did I mention that there is no park entry fee at GBNP? We had our passes ready, but never used them except for the cave tour and to gain half price discounts for our campsite. With the pass, we only paid $6.00 per night for our site.

Lehman Caves are actually only one cave, known for centuries by local tribes but “discovered” by Absolom Lehman in 1885. There are interesting old photographs of the original ladder entrance, and large groups of people in dresses and shirts and ties lounging around on the formations. Needless to say, there is not of that today. Visitors are screened for any possibility of carrying disease fatal to the bats, and are told to not touch anything.

I visited Carlsbad Caverns a few years ago, and was awed by the formations, but felt very uncomfortable in that cave. It felt like a place below the earth that was not for human visitation. I felt no such esoteric weirdness at Lehman Caves, enjoying especially the narrow walkways, and the subdued natural lighting in some areas.

The cave has some rare formations called “shields” that occur rarely in other caverns. Our guide was from Tennessee, and it was obvious that she loved the cave. The groups are limited to 20 people and on this day there were sixteen attending the tour. The constant 50 degree temperature inside the caves made our light jackets feel good. The caves are open year round, so I can imagine it would be a delight to visit on a cold winter day.

Explore the night sky

As mentioned in a previous post, we secured our passes for the Full Moon Hike previously. Many years ago I read an interesting book that suggested walking in the dark of night, or by the light of the moon. It has been at least a couple of decades since I tried it consciously. I looked forward to this walk, thankful that we would be in the presence of a ranger and some other folks as well.

Mo wasn’t as enamored of the night hiking as I was. I enjoyed every single moment. We left from the Summit Trailhead at twilight as the moon was rising over Wheeler Peak, but as we hiked toward Stella Lake, the moon was again obscured by the mountain. I decided to skip carrying the heavy camera, in favor of keeping my balance on the trail in the dark and not having to fiddle with settings and such.

Later, as we sat at Stella Lake waiting for the moon to again appear over the crest of the peak, I was sorry I hadn’t taken the good camera. I have only these fuzzy iPhone photos to remind me of that magical moment.

The hike was an easy 2.2 miles through aspen groves and open meadows. The trail was a bit rocky, with roots here and there, but in the moonlight, it was easy to navigate. I was still quite happy to have two walking sticks, one to share with Mo for the trip. I kept thinking how happy I was that there were no bears in this park as we walked through the night forest!

Take a back country drive up Snake Creek

Mo and I both decided that this remote section of the park was our favorite. Snake Creek flows from the high peaks down to the tiny ranching community of Gunnison and beyond. The road is graveled for several miles and then turns to rocky dirt, but is never extremely difficult.

We did drop the Tracker into 4-wheel drive, but could have managed without it. High clearance was needed, however, for some stretches, especially toward the Johnson Peak trailhead at the end of the road.

Part of the route traverses the boundary between BLM land and National Park land, following Snake Creek up the canyon. There are several campsites located along the road, several of them are on BLM land, and an additional 4 camps are in the park before the road ends at the trailhead.

We thought about hiking the Johnson Peak trail, knowing full well that 7.5 miles round trip and the extreme elevation gain of that particular trail was more than we wanted to tackle that afternoon. Instead, we decided to attempt to reach Dead Lake, another obscure trail just south of the main Johnson Peak trail.

We enjoyed ourselves, in spite of the fact that we were hiking without benefit of GPS, telephone, or even a paper map in our possession. I was navigating from the memory of the sign at the Johnson Peak trailhead. Pretty dumb, but geez, there are no bears here so what did we have to fear?!

The trail we chose went up and up and up, without benefit of ridge or landing to break the climb. There was a bit of a view back down the canyon, and then looking at a particularly steep section ahead of us we looked at each other, and said, “Why?”. It was a great point to turn around.

Back to the Tracker, we followed Snake Creek to an incredible campsite along some natural swimming holes where Abby jumped in to cool herself and we enjoyed lunch at the picnic table. For once, we actually remembered to pack a lunch before we took off exploring and the tuna sandwiches and corn chips tasted wonderful.

Johnson Lake is the location of an old mining camp, and we did find an old dredge down along the creek. The other fascinating thing about the creek is that it disappears completely underground for a considerable distance. I was watching the dry creek bed as Mo drove, and then suddenly heard a roaring sound. The water emerges from this pipe at least a mile east of where it disappears underground. Would love to know the story behind this.

I did find out that Snake Creek Cave is a “wild cave”, undeveloped, that is in the vicinity of where we had lunch. With an entrance high on the slope above us, my theory of an underground cave sucking up the water, doesn’t hold water.

Hike to a Bristlecone grove

Can you believe we didn’t manage this one? Our hike up at the end of Snake Creek Canyon wore us out. We had planned to drive the long steep road to the trailhead in late afternoon, hoping to leave Abby in the rig while we hiked. I wrote a bit while Mo napped, and the winds started rising once again as time for our departure came close. Looking at each other once again, we said, “Nope”. The bristlecone grove will have to wait for another visit.

Hike the many trails

Hiking trails in Great Basin National Park

There are more than a dozen hikes listed in the park brochure, with difficulty, distance and other information. I would have loved to hike the alpine lakes loop, a moderate 3 mile hike. Not so much the summit hike to Wheeler Peak, with rock scrambles at the top over 13,000 feet elevation. The brochure insists this should be an early morning start to miss the winds and thunderstorms that often rise in late afternoon.

The trail to Lexington Arch, a magnificent limestone arch that was probably at one time a cave room that has been uplifted, is the only dog friendly trail in the park. We weren’t able to hike this trail due to a recent fire and the resultant road closure. We won’t tell anyone that we took Abby on our unmarked Dead Lake trail. It was actually an old road where they say dogs are allowed, and as I mentioned before, there wasn’t a soul around to know or care. Abby did well, without huffing and puffing any more than we did.

Camp and relax in a beautiful spot with gorgeous views, fresh air, no crowds and dark night skies

It is good to know that there are places to go and roads to explore in this beautiful park that we have yet to find. I am sure we will return.

Two Trails

Current Location: Brookings, Oregon 49 degrees and 100 percent chance of rain

At the moment, it is raining and gray and we are comfortably relaxing in the MoHo. Just a warning for all the blog purists out there who say they don’t want too many photos. There are 20 photos in this post, more than I usually add, and yet it IS a photo tour of our trail walks yesterday. If you don’t like photos, then skip it. I made them big specifically for Nicki, who always requests the big ones so that she doesn’t have to click to get a bigger image. You can’t please all the people all the time, but you can definitely please some of the people some of the time!

The predicted rain finally reached Harris Beach early this morning. We knew it was coming, in fact it was expected to show up on our first day here. Instead, we enjoyed three days of gorgeous sunshine. Waking this morning to the sound of rain was soothing, and we actually slept in to almost 7:30. Of course, it helps if someone gets up at 4:30 or so to let the dog out, give the cat a treat, and feed the dog. Then they are ready to settle in and let us sleep. Two Trails_156 Yesterday, knowing that our sunny respite was soon coming to an end, we were happy for one more day to walk the beach and hike a couple of the trails. I know that someday, when I am hopefully much, much older, I won’t be able to hike these nice little trails with their gorgeous views, and decided I wanted to do a “Sherry” and take you on a hike, and give myself a place to go when I want to remember just how lovely these walks can be on a sunny day at the ocean.

A short trail we sometimes forget to do is the Harris Butte Trail. The trailhead is just north of the entry kiosk at the park. The Harris Beach Trail also begins at this location and makes a loop around the tree covered butte, but Mo remembered that there is a lot of poison oak along that trail. With the dog along, I get a bit paranoid about poison oak, so we decided to skip that route, lovely as it is.

The short hike to the top has a few switchbacks, is a bit rocky in places, and a bit steep. The hike takes maybe ten minutes at the most, but the view is wonderful. The hillside is covered with thick vegetation, with only a few limited views of the beach below through the trees.

The viewpoint is a great photo site, especially in the early part of the day when the sun is in the east. Sunsets viewed from this spot must be spectacular, but for no reason I can imagine, we haven’t hiked up here to view the sunsets.

Below the cliff where we stood, was a great view of the Harris Beach State Park Day Use Area, the one we walked to Tuesday afternoon.

This is the best spot to view Goat Island, and we noticed there was a kayak parked on the steep shoreline, with a few people (dots of color) moving across the slope. It seemed as though they were monitoring vegetation or bird sites or something, with the faint impression of some kind of marking posts on the north facing grassy slope.

With a bit of searching, I found out that Goat Island is the largest island along the Oregon coast. It was the first unit comprising the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1936. The island contains deep soils and a variety of native vegetation condusive to burrow-nesting seabird species.

Goat Island hosts 24% of the statewide nesting Leach’s Storm-Petrels and more than 109,000 nesting seabirds comprising 11 species. The island serves as a night roost for thousands of Aleutian Canada geese in the spring and a wintering area for a small group (40) of Dusky Canada geese.

In addition, it seems that the biggest problems for the nesting birds are boats approaching too closely, low flying aircraft, and “human trespass”. I would imagine that the people we saw walking across the slope were supposed to be there, and that kayaking to the tiny beach and exploring the island on foot would be illegal.

The second trail we walked was our favorite South Beach Trail. This trail can be accessed directly from the big parking lot just west of Highway 101 near the entrance of the state park.

In addition, there is a sweet little trailhead that begins at the southern end of the campground. This walk leads through deep spruce forest, and is lined with thick vegetation typical of the moist climate in the Oregon coastal forests.

Emerging at the aforementioned parking lot, the trail continues down the steep cliff to the beach below.

With asphalt pavement on the steep trail, it is a joy to walk, either up or down, and there is a nice bench for a break if you need it. On this spring day, we were surprised that the park staff has yet to do much clearing along the trail and the grasses and flowers were wild and overflowing and lovely along the path.

At the bottom of the trail, there are a few logs to walk over, arranged conveniently into a rough step like configuration, and the beach stretches to the north and to the south.

We usually walk south, because with the tide out we can walk a greater distance before being stopped by rocky cliffs. The beach shifts and changes with the winds and seasons, and we noticed that the ephemeral brackish water lake was gone, completely erased by tides and winter storms. The large pool was formed by a small stream, emerging from the cliffs, and the water was fresh enough that Abby could swim and even drink.

No more. Now the stream crosses the sand, circumnavigating the large stacks and going directly to the ocean.

My Keen Targhee boots did their job and I crossed the stream without getting the least bit wet. It was just a bit cold for barefoot hiking and wading, so I was glad for dry feet this time.

As I was taking photos, I realized that we rarely do this walk in the early part of the day. Most of my photos of the ocean from this part of the beach are against late afternoon sun. It was a treat to have the sun behind me for a completely different kind of light.

With low tide just an hour or so ahead of us, we saw only one red sea star, too far out to get much of a photo. There have been times when we have seen more than we can count, along with green anemones. It is never the same.

This time the most dramatic find was brilliant green moss on the rocks, soft as velvet, and many different kinds of algae covering the sea stacks, still dripping with seawater.

Just around the corner from the rocky jumble that stopped our walk, is another small beach that lies directly below Mo’s former condo. Sometimes we can negotiate the jumble, but this time it looked daunting so we didn’t bother.

We spent a bit of time wondering at how it might feel to ascent this tram, and remembered climbing steps like these to get to the beach from the condo.

I am not sure exactly where the state park boundary ends on South Beach, but we assume that once there are homes along the cliff above us we are outside the state park and Abby can run and play off leash.

Mo threw the ball for her until Abby finally refused to drop it. I think that was her way of saying she was finally worn out. For 12 years old she does great, and still loves to retrieve the ball, but she is getting a bit slower. Makes me a bit sad. Of course, I am slowing down as well, and that makes me a bit sad too.

3-24-2014 Zion roads and Coral dunes

As I said in an earlier post, we thought perhaps we could slip into Zion proper on a Monday morning without the crowds for which this park is famous. Silly us. In spite of the crowds, however, the road through the tunnel to the east side of the park is something I didn’t want to miss. It is spectacular.

We were camped much too close to the iconic National Park to miss seeing its wonders, crowds or not. Hiking was not on the agenda for the day, or at least nothing much beyond a short walk or two. With only one day, we decided to play “drive through tourist”. You know, you see them at most every National Park or Monument. The ones in the car driving slowly along, gawking at the sights that they can see from their windows, never emerging from the vehicle to actually experience the magic in more depth.

You know us well enough by now to know that we don’t do that all the time. Just sometimes. Still, in spite of our plans, we couldn’t manage to stay in the car entirely. I did jump out now and then for a photo, and yes, we did manage a short hike/walk before the day was finished.

Hiking is what you ‘do’ in Zion Canyon. This part was as I remembered, it is all about UP. Everything is up, up, up, and trying to take photos is a test of framing skill. I would shoot those magnificently colored eroded cliffs, carved by the innocent looking Virgin River, and then think, “Geez, everything just looks the same”. Up, and Red and White, and more UP, with a tiny bit of fresh new green in the canyon bottom from the spring explosion of box elder, Fremont cottonwoods, and willow.

It was early in the day when we drove east on Highway 9, through Virgin, through the sweet little town of Rockville, and into the gentrified, once Mormon pioneer community of Springdale, gateway to the park. Springdale was glitzy, with some rather ostentatious homes that looked incredibly out of place, a lovely paved bike trail, and all the associated restaurants, B and B’s, hotels, motels, shops and “fun stuff” associated with many National Parks.

Visitation to Zion is incredible, 7th on the list of the ten most visited national parks in the US, with 2,807,387 visits in 2013. That is an average of nearly 8,000 visits per day, and I would imagine that some of the worst winter days don’t see a lot of people, although winter is Zion isn’t daunting. Looking up these statistics, I was happy we weren’t visiting the Great Smoky Mountains NP, first on the list with 9,354,695 visits in 2013. Something tells me that as a nation, we love our national parks, so why are we not funding them properly?

The soil survey program in the National Parks has been headed by a good friend of mine for several years. He just retired, and just before his retirement, all funding for soil survey was ended except for projects already funded and in progress. It isn’t just scientific programs like soil survey that are ending, it is all sorts of other support needed for these parks to function well that are being cut.

On this morning, I saw a great example of how the Park Service is dealing with reduced funding in incredibly creative ways. The stunning Visitor Center had most of its displays outside the main lobby. The signs were beautifully done, easily understood and arranged in a way that visitors could learn about the park without even entering the small bookstore. Fewer people to interpret, but interpretive displays that made personal interaction a lesser requirement. Good for the parks.

We spent some time reviewing the hikes we might take in the future, looking at the plants, animals, geology, and layout of the park, reading a bit about the history of the area before we got back in the car to drive through the famous tunnel.

Currently the tunnel is open to RV’s, with an extra $15.00 fee required in addition to the regular $25.00 fee for simply driving through the park. This is one place where the senior pass saved us a bunch of cash, even without the rig along. Here is a link to questions about driving an RV on the Zion to Mt Carmel highway through the tunnel.

The story of the road and the building of the tunnel is fascinating, an engineering feat that was once considered impossible. Once the tunnel was completed in 1930, roads between the national parks on the Colorado Plateau were connected in a way to make travel between them much easier, and park visitation grew exponentially during the heyday of family car vacations from the 30’s forward.

We enjoyed the drive, patiently waiting for traffic here and there, and laughing about how this was the “experience’ of traveling in a national park any more. Many parks now have shuttles available to manage the worst of the traffic, and in Zion, after March 31, cars are not allowed in Zion Canyon. From April 1 through October in 2014, access to the canyon will be by shuttle only. A large number of the most famous hikes in Zion are from trailheads in the canyon, so hiking will require some planning ahead.

The Zion-Mt Carmel Highway connects Springdale with Kanab, Utah. West of Kanab, a side road leads to the Coral Pink Dunes State Park. The scenery between Zion and the Dunes is a bit less spectacular than some, with high juniper covered plateaus punctuated by distant mesas and mountains. I had been to the dunes in the past, only long enough to step on the sand and try to avoid the wild ATV’s screaming around having a great time. When I visited, the state park was filled with campers and 4 wheelers, and the noise was deafening.

Lots of fun for some folks, but not such a great place to wander sand dunes on foot. On this beautiful March morning, however, we practically had the dunes to ourselves, and the state park campground was nearly empty. What a treat!! The sand is soft soft grains of eroded Navajo sandstone, the same soft pink coral color found in the Navajo slickrock near Lake Powell. The sand was softer and silkier than any I have ever felt, except maybe that little bit that we walked through in Antelope Canyon.

Making our way back west, and re entering Zion NP, we were momentarily stopped by the typical wildlife jam found in most places where big critters hang out along the road. Joining the jam, we turned around and watched the baby goats dance along the slickrock.

One young woman was parked right in the middle of the road, and kept waving us to go around. Nope. Not on your life. It was a blind curve and we weren’t about to pass her! As cars piled up behind us, I finally got out and said, “Sorry, we aren’t going to pass on a blind curve, could you maybe move forward and pull over a bit?” She replied, “No, I am just waiting for my family” and didn’t move. Finally, after some time, she figured out that she was going to have to do something and drove the 400 feet or so ahead where a turnout gave her some space and all the rest of us managed to get around her. Ahh the joys of traveling a national park in a car!

Once back through the tunnel, we came to the turn toward the canyon and decided, what the heck, we won’t be back here soon. Knowing that it would be bumper to bumper, we didn’t even think about hiking.

At each trailhead, the lots were jammed and the cars were lined up on both sides of the road for some distance. People were everywhere! We could see the trails with lines and lines of people walking along, much like that line of ants that you see on Half Dome in Yosemite if you look closely.

At the end of the canyon is the famous view of The Great White Throne, iconic image of Zion, restrooms, and the trailhead for the Riverside Trail Walk, a short 2.2 mile round trip hike if you don’t attempt to cross the Virgin River into the Narrows. Again, the parking lot was jammed, people were everywhere, and we had no plans to hike. The Canyon knew better, however, and a parking slot opened up within a few feet of the trailhead.

Ok then. Maybe we can brave the crowds for a simple walk, get out of the car at least once? Ya think?

I can’t believe in the ability of the canyon to absorb all that humanity and still feel as wonderful as it did. Within minutes of walking north into the canyon on the wide paved trail, the humanity thinned out and the beauty of the canyon and river was ours. Sure, there were people, but it was totally worth it to experience the canyon in that late afternoon light.

We took our time, enjoying the views, the light and shadow, watching the rock climbers a bit, listening to the birds and the water dripping on the canyon walls in the hanging gardens. Two miles on a level trail doesn’t qualify as a “hike”, but at least we did get out of the car.

I plan to go back and read Mark’s accounts of the many hikes he and Bobbie have done in Zion and the time of year that they did them. We enjoyed camping at Virgin so much, and I have a feeling that we will return to this area again, hopefully during late fall, and maybe actually manage at least some of the gorgeous hikes in Zion National Park. For sure we can do the hikes that are accessible from the Kolob Canyon area that we explored yesterday.

1-12-2014 Last Day in Big Bend

NAS Corpus Christi: 67 F with a nice 10mph breeze and bright sunshine at 5:30PM

Sometimes the most difficult part about not writing blog stories right away is getting back into the “mode”. Sitting here by Corpus Christi Bay, watching the brilliant sun turn orange on the horizon and listening to shore birds makes it a bit difficult to slip back in time to our rocky world at Big Bend.

This has been a lovely day, and there are more to come, and of course by the time I get to write about them, we will be off somewhere else, doing more lovely things and trying to remember the last lovely thing that we did. It isn’t so much that I feel obligated to keep up with the blog, it is more that I really want to remember, for myself, what I felt when I was doing whatever.

So, I open up Picasa again, and look at the photos for awhile, think about where we were and what it felt like, and sooner or later, the feelings reemerge. I am back in Big Bend, the cool morning is opening up as the sun rises, the smell of the leafless cottonwoods and desert grasses filling my nose as we get ready for our last day in the Big Bend.

When we first started looking at ideas for this day, we thought it would be nice to do the dirt back roads that are between the Chisos Mountains and the Rio Grande. The River Road traverses the southern portion of Big Bend and midway passes the ruins of the Marsical Mine. Mercury was once mined here and structures are still standing. In addition, the route has several rough dirt tracks that lead to backcountry campsites along the river that might be interesting to see.

But it is a 51 mile trip, with at least 8 hours of rough bumping around. We do that a lot, but on this day we thought, no…maybe something easier. I thought it might be nice to get back to camp by 3 or so and have time to cook a decent supper, get some laundry done, and be ready for Monday morning and an early departure. You know, that life stuff.

Instead of an all day backcountry trip, we took a 6 mile dirt road to one of the hidden gems of the park, the Grapevine Hills. Photos of the Balanced Rock are everywhere, and yet it seems that fewer people make it out to the hills to take the short easy hike. We thought, hmmm…maybe no one will be there and we can take Abby. (If you haven’t seen my last post and my comment about dogs on the trails here is another thought about that. Our dogs can carry diseases that wild animals are not immune to. I hadn’t really thought about that aspect when I was grumbling away about the no dog rule and trying to get around it.)

The road was again, graded dirt, but with more washboards and a few ditches, but nothing that would require actual 4 wheel drive. We drove past a couple of primitive camps, and at 6 miles arrived at the trailhead for Balanced Rock. Lo and behold, there were six cars already there and 4 more had just arrived with big bunches of people piling out and loading up water and packs and leaving on the trail. Way too many people for me much less an illegal dog!

We thought we would amble on down to the end of the road and check out the Grapevine Springs primitive campground, just another mile or so north. The road got a bit rougher here, with high clearance needed for sure, but all wheel drive would have been ok as well. The campground was surrounded by brush, and didn’t have much of a view. We wandered around a bit, and finally made it through some of the thick, spiny brush to find what may have once been a spring. There was a hint of an old cottonwood, but I am pretty sure it was no longer alive, and a hint of a view of the desert to the east, but it was hidden mostly by the brush. Our trusty little guidebook author said it was one of his favorite primitive campgrounds in the park. All a matter of opinion, I guess. We wouldn’t camp there, even if we did camp in a tent.

By the time we got back to the trailhead, there were still a lot of cars but no one was in sight. We talked about letting Abby wait in the car, since it was still very cool, but Mo wasn’t at all comfortable with that, so instead she encouraged me to take the hike alone to the rock and she would wait with Abby in the parking lot.

I took off on the easy rated hike, only 1.25 miles each way and well marked. The skies were perfectly blue, the air was just the right temperature and the path was wide and easy. About 3/4 of a mile in, I passed some hikers returning and they said there were javelinas on the trail, an excellent reason for not having Abby along. I looked and waited, but never saw a sign of them. I see some beautiful and healthy mountain mahogany trees, indications of a bit of a different climate back in the small valley surrounded by hills. Stopping every so often I heard interesting bird calls, but not being a true ‘birder’, I had no idea what I was hearing.

Another couple came down the trail, and said, “It is just up the hill there, and there are still a lot of people up there”. Hmmm. At least I wouldn’t be surprised by the crowd. What did surprise me, however, was the trail. This was an ‘easy’ trail, remember? As I saw the marker for the last 1/4 mile, I also saw the trail begin to ascend, and not gradually. The trail looked dang near vertical, a scramble up the rocks, with switchbacks, and no end in sight.

This time I was armed with both hiking poles and my good boots, so I was ready. Or almost ready. I started up, and kept on going and going and going. Yeah it was only a quarter mile, but it was definitely challenging to me. Very near the end of the hike I looked at the rock as tall as I was and thought, “I can’t do this. How in the world will I ever get back down”. But I could hear voices at the top out of my line of vision, and thought, “Well, if I fall someone will at least hear me”, and up I went. It wasn’t as hard as I expected, but it still was an adrenaline rush.

Then when I finally made it to the top, it turned out it wasn’t the top at all. But there were definitely a lot of people there who were all busy scribbling in tablets and talking quietly among themselves. They seemed to think I shouldn’t be there, but when I asked where the Balanced Rock was, one guy decided to talk to me and said, “Up there, on that trail. It isn’t far.” Oh great. More up and in front of all these people, whomever they were with their little tablets. I did ask someone if they were botanists or geologists, and a guy piped up and said, “We are artists”. Oh. They were all actually drawing desert images with colored chalk on little thin pieces of slate, obviously they brought their own slate since the rocks surrounding us were all granite of some sort.

With just a bit more effort, and a bit more adrenaline, I made it to the top of the landing below Balanced Rock, managed to take some photos without tipping over from vertigo, and climbed back down and beyond all the artists busily working on their projects. When I had climbed the very tall, very vertical wall, I decided I needed both hands and had left my hiking poles behind. I was happy to get down that rock and back to my poles, believe me.

It was worth it, of course, and I am sure the next time I won’t be so jittery about it, and Mo will be with me, too. Yes, we will come back and do this hike again.

When I returned to the trailhead, Mo and Abby were comfortable in the warm sun, hanging around and getting in a few walks along the road. We drove back to the main highway and then turned north again to go find another dirt road to what was called Painted Gap. Now I have to say, this road was the roughest we encountered. There were lots of rocks and high clearance was a definite requirement. The view from the crest of the hill near the gap was nice, with the Chisos Mountains to the south, but the road was rough enough and I was a bit tired of bouncing around so who knows what we would have found if we had continued to the end in another 1/2 mile or so. We didn’t see any paint anywhere, though, so have no idea where the name came from.

By this time is was mid-afternoon, and it was a fine time to drive the 30 miles or so back to camp with plenty of time to have a nice supper and actually relax a bit. Our grilled chicken breasts were great in a parmesan penne pasta with a little caesar salad on the side. Small kitchen cooking is simple but can be really good.

After dinner we decided to go exploring around the campground, something we hadn’t done in the three days camped here. At the store, I was shown on the map where Abby could go, and the boat ramp was on the list. We just couldn’t take the paths and had to walk on the pavement that led to the park campground and around to the ramp. It was a nice walk, and long enough that we all got a bit more exercise.

The river looked wide and slow, and not at all scary. Well, maybe just a little bit. The ramp has a drop off into thick, silty mud and the river depth drops suddenly within a foot or two. I couldn’t quite picture trying to hold my boat against the current, keep from sinking into the mud, while trying to climb into my kayak without dumping. Friend Jeanne just pushes her kayak off the rocks into waterfalls. Jeanne I am not!

We thought about trying to launch on the river in the morning before our planned departure and leave Abby in the MoHo, but common sense won out, and the lack of a permit and the country of Mexico within a few feet kept us from taking the chance. I think this decision was made around 4 in the morning when I woke up, and could hear Mo breathing, and said, “I really don’t want to try to kayak in that river tomorrow morning”. Her “OK” was quick and emphatic. That trip will wait till next time as well.

Walking back from the ramp that evening we were treated to one of the best sunsets we have seen in all our time on the road. The skies in all directions just kept getting brighter and brighter and the colors kept shifting and changing. What a beautiful way to end our last day in Big Bend National Park.

1-10-2014 Big Bend part 1

Current location: Corpus Christi NAS with 53 degrees F and 18 mph winds at 4am

I am sitting here this morning, listening to the winds buffeting the MoHo. At 3, we were wakened by the gas alarm going off indicating our power was down. I stepped outside to check, and everything seemed fine, with dim park lights here and there. I discovered that the wind had blown the power cord right out of the receptacle. Fixed it with a bungie and came back to bed after turning the power back to “store”.

Of course, the moon is almost full and reflecting off the water of Corpus Christi Bay, a rather amazing sight. There are also 8 to 10 foot fountains of sea spray that are illuminated by the moonlight. I felt the spray blowing this way when I went outside. We were warned about the sea spray and winds when we took this site on the edge of the park near the water. It is worth it for the view and the open spaciousness of the site.

Mo and I looked at each other in amazement as we ate our supper last night. It is rather incredible to go from the wild hot dry angular desert to the flat water filled landscape around us here west of Corpus Christi. Just one day of driving, and here we are.

But that isn’t supposed to be the subject of this post. I need to write about Big Bend, and let myself slip back from this moonlit sea spray filled morning to the warmth of the desert we left behind. I couldn’t sleep after the wind woke me up, and it was as much from the weight of the Big Bend writing waiting in my head as it was from the sound of the wind. So let’s slip back a bit to a few days ago when we first entered the amazing world of the Big Bend of the Rio Grande.

The sun was brilliant and the temperatures perfect when we left Davis Mountains State Park. In the cool of the morning, I wanted to get a few more photos of “downtown” Fort Davis, and in the process ran into a delightful gentleman, Jim, who was working for the county at the lovely courthouse, pruning some trees. We engaged in some conversation, and he told me more about the horrible fire that blew through here in 2011. He also told me that I shouldn’t go to Big Bend through Alpine as we had planned, but should go south on highway 67 to Presidio and travel the River Road east through Big Bend Ranch State Park.

MBZ had warned us that Presidio was a bit dicey, and I asked Jim about this, and he said, just don’t go into Mexico and don’t stop anywhere. Ok then. Trouble is, once we got to Presidio, the phone thought I was in Mexico and decided to stop sending me data for the maps. I had a paper map, but it was a bit worthless for actually seeing the proper turns, and suddenly the big entry into Mexico loomed up ahead, and I hollered, “Turn around NOW!” For some reason, I had completely forgotten the Garmin tucked under the seat. Duh. When the phones don’t work and the paper maps are too small in scale, the Garmin is quite helpful. Trucker Deanna always says, “Mom, we use all three all the time, phones, paper maps and GPS”. Of course. We managed to avoid getting in the entry line and turned around to find our proper turn east on Texas Farm Road 170.

Farm Road 170 meanders along the Rio Grande through another wild and untamed gem of this part of Texas, Big Bend Ranch State Park. We had no time to hang around here, but definitely enjoyed the dramatic views along the route, especially the deep canyons of the Rio Grande near the one rather serious “Big Hill”. The hill isn’t marked except for a sign about 15 miles west of it that says, “warning 15 percent grade 15 miles ahead”.

Following the river for miles and miles, it is easy to see that the international boundary is often just a mental concept. Here there are no fences and we didn’t see much evidence of Border Patrol in this area. The road winds and meanders, but wasn’t difficult for our rig, although the big hill was just a little bit hair raising, and thankfully quite short. The rock formations at the Hoodoos were beautiful, and the geology was fascinating.

We drove east into the town of Terlingua, later wishing that we had taken more time to explore it a bit, but we were intent on getting to our campsite on the far side of the park. We missed a four star attraction listed in our guidebook, the historic Starlight Theater at Terlingua, restored as a restaurant. We won’t make the same mistake again. MBZ had warned us about this, suggesting that we spend time on BOTH sides of the park, and next time we will definitely do that. And yes, there WILL be a next time.

Once we entered the park, the beautiful range of the Chisos Mountains dominated the landscape, but the route is mainly through the desert. Unlike the Sonoran deserts around Arizona, the Chihuahuan desert seems to have a lot more vegetation, with thick grasses between the prickly pear and creosote. The Chihuahuan Desert is the largest desert in the Americas, extending almost to Mexico City. Creosote and agave are the main indicator plants and there are several species of prickly pear and yucca. I saw not a sign of a saguaro, so common in the Sonoran Desert around Tucson. Most of the moisture comes as summer rains, with a bit more precipitation than in the Sonoran as well.

Panther Junction (at the intersection of the main park road 118 and road 395 east to Marathon) is about 20 miles west of Rio Grande Village, and is the location of an excellent visitor center. As always, we stopped at the visitor center for maps, orientation, and information about the park. There are some excellent displays, a good selection of natural history books and park guides to help us begin to understand this beautiful, remote area. My favorite, the 3D landscape map, was big and very helpful with orientation. I find that these maps are a bit less needed in the days of google earth, however, since I now can cruise an area in 3D on the internet and the imagery is a bit more detailed. Still, I love that the parks have these big map models.

We arrived at our campground early enough in the afternoon that we had time to do a bit of exploring around this far eastern edge of the park. As we knew, there are no dogs allowed anywhere except on pavement or dirt roads that can accommodate a car. Still, it was hard to realize that we couldn’t leave Abby behind in the rig, or leave her in the car while we hiked. Just wouldn’t do. Instead, we planned our explorations around unpaved road trips and a few short hikes.

There are two campgrounds at Rio Grand Village, with the national park campground with campsites without hookups, potable water at the entrance and a dump station. There is a large no generator zone, and a nice area with sites big enough for large rigs and where generators are allowed at certain hours.

Because we had no idea of the weather conditions for this trip, we opted instead for the Rio Grande Village RV park, basically a pavement parking lot with full hookups and WiFi from the small store and laundry. Gasoline and diesel are also available, and we were surprised at the reasonable cost for regular at only 3.65 per gallon. We have been in national parks where the prices are two bucks or more higher than the going local rate, so this was nice. We had no need to fill the rig since we had fueled up enough to take us through the park and back out, but we definitely needed gas for the baby car to fuel our off highway adventures.

Our first little trip took us just a few miles from the campground to Boquillas Canyon where there was a rest room at the parking lot and a sign marking the trailhead. It is just a little over a mile to the canyon, but the trail is “easy” if you ignore the rather steep and rocky ups and downs on the first part of the trail. I was glad for boots instead of Oofos, and those Keen Targha waterproof hiking shoes are a godsend.

Mo generously decided to wait in the parking lot with Abby while I did the hike, a decision she made a few more times while we were in Big Bend. Next time we come to this place, if our animals are still with us, we will board them in Alpine, the closest center where there is a pet boarding facility.

The Boquillas Crossing used to be a port of entry from Mexico, but after 9/11 the DHS closed it, along with all other small ports of entry in the park. You can see the little town across the river, and at the river overlook we found displays of beaded trinkets with cans requesting $6. per item for little scorpions and for painted walking sticks. Wherever we found the signs, the request was for money to support Boquillas schools. We chose not to buy, and yet I did think about it, even though the park insists this is completely illegal and they will arrest you if you buy and confiscate your contraband.

Below us, across the river, there were boats tied up and some horses resting under the trees, and someone called up to me as we stood there but I couldn’t understand him. His voice sounded friendly, though, and I am sure he was entreating me to buy something.

As I hiked up the trail, I found a few more of these little stashes, and at the entrance to the canyon, I saw a canoe hidden in the rocks on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande. Higher on the trail, looking down below to the river, I saw a man on a horse, and the trail, steep and rocky as it was, actually had horse prints and horse poop on it. Why do horses get to poop on trails and dogs are not even allowed to go there on a leash with a loyal pooper scooper in tow? I’ll bet anything that guy was from Mexico and had managed to cross the river somewhere to check his little can stashes.

The entrance to Boquillas Canyon was dim, hard to photograph in the late afternoon light, but it was silent and beautiful, with walls rising more than 1,200 feet above me. I love tall, tight canyons, love how they feel, and found out later that this canyon is one on a list of possible river runs that I would love to do someday. Probably not in my own kayak, however, since there are some rocky rapids that need a good river guide to navigate. Still, it is on the bucket list along with Santa Elena Canyon. That is tomorrow’s story, however.

When I got back to the car, Mo and Abby were contented enough, and we did figure out that we should have a book or two in the car for Mo while I wandered about. Mo and Abby go their exercise by doing six laps around the parking lot. One of the greatest little treasures that we found at the visitor center was a small book called “The Big Bend Guide” by Allan Kimball. We loved this little book, a great find for first time visitors, with down to earth explanations of the local routes, and what to do if you have only one day or three days or a week in the park. I highly recommend this book if you have never visited Big Bend.

We drove back to the main road, and then again turned off on a dirt high clearance road to find the Hot Springs. The road is only about a mile and a half to the parking area, and we had hoped that maybe there wasn’t anyone around so we could possibly explore with Abby. Instead, this was a very popular spot and there were several cars parked and lots of folks heading to and from the springs.

The area was once a large hot springs resort, with a bath house, motel rooms, and even a store and post office. The abandoned buildings and old palms only hinted at what a delightful place this might have been at one time. The sun was down, and the evening was cool in the twilight, so Mo decided to leave Abby for a short time while we walked the short distance to the springs.

The springs are 105 degrees F, in a small rock pool built along the Rio Grande, and look quite nice. However, when we arrived, they were filled with a couple of families, kids all happily playing and moms floating au naturel in the hot water. I really didn’t want to jump in with them, so I decided to wait for another time for a dip in the springs.

We ran into this multiple family again a couple of times, with Alaska plates on their RV. There were a LOT of people in that rig, but when we talked to them we found out that they were from Austin and had rented the RV. They were having great fun together, although a motorhome with 4 adults and 4 little kids might be a bit much. Whew!

We were happy to get back to our rig and eat the good supper of leftovers from our previous dinner. So nice not to have to cook when it is dark and we have had a very long day! With no telephone, but at least enough Wi-Fi to get some mail, we settled in and read all the literature we had about what we might want to do on our next full day in the park.

Big Bend is an International Night Sky park, with a commitment to keeping things dark and unpolluted with light. There are lots of references to seeing the Milky Way here, but our moon was already too bright and while the stars were wonderful, that gorgeous view of the Milky Way eluded me. I even got up in the middle of the night to check out the sky. Maybe it was because the elevation at the Rio Grande is about 1,800 feet and perhaps those great Milky Way views are at the much higher Chisos Basin.

Still, even in our small parking lot camp, the skies were dark and the night was silent except for some low voiced owls here and there. Loved it.

Tomorrow we travel the Scenic Route and find the magnificent Santa Elena Canyon