Big Bend National Geographic Photo Gallery
The menu on the National Geographic site has some more features like a map and such.
John took lots of pictures while we were there, so we'll see how those turn out. He took them on film, so we'll have to get them developed... The National Geographic photos are amazing, but they do not really give you the idea of the vastness and the starkness. John and Paul (my dad) found survey maps and worked out a theory about the area being a collection of calderas (old volcanoes). It's a very convincing argument. Have a look at http://alnk.org/baldgame (Yahoo maps, in hybrid or satellite format) to see what they mean.
We enjoyed our cabin at Wild Horses Station 5 miles north of Study Butte (Stoo-dee Beaut) and had some fabulous dinners at the Starlight Café in Terlingua. We floated down the river in rafts with guides for two days down the Santa Elena Canyon and saw prehistoric ferns growing in a tiny off-shoot canyon. The ferns aren't found anywhere else in the area. We drank water that was filtered through 1000 ft of rock and it was delicious. We camped on the Mexican side and had a fabulous view of the mouth of the canyon. The water was up and the weather was gorgeous. We hit 97F on Thursday. We came back in and fired up the grill, enjoyed some seriously wonderful chicken breasts with an amazing sunset on our porch, which was set way up on the foot of a mesa. We hiked up the Lost Mine trail in Big Bend Park proper and Mara did a fine job! She meet lots of friends and had a great time.
It is a harsh life there, to be sure. You have to be made of stern stuff to live there year-round. Water is precious. Some crazy blankety-blank person from Austin decided that this area was the perfect place for a 5 star resort with a golf course, so we saw what current over-use can do to the desert.
People's wells are being sucked up to grow grass(!) for the putting greens.
Overgrazing when the area was first discovered (late 1800's) has made some serious impacts on the land. It used to be grass land and now it is fierce desert. If it doesn't stick you, poke you, or bite you, it's a rock. We watched a dust storm fly through and hit us. It looked like rain at first.
The last day we were there, it rained and was windy and very cold. The old adage "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes." Is certainly true for Big Bend country!
But the sunsets are generally viewed in the east, painting the mountains gorgeous pinks and golds and having a cold one while sitting on the benches outside of the General Store is a treat not to be missed.
When we get the photos back from the developers, I will send you the link to Flickr.
I hope everyone had a great spring break! Hopefully next year, Texas won't have it all in one week! Gas stations were running out of gas while we were on our trip... Exciting!
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