Big Bend

Big Bend National Park is in west Texas on the Mexican border.  The two countries are separated by the Rio Grande, which you'd expect to be a huge river but is really more like a wading pool and only with a distance of about 20 to 30 feet across.  We experience an intense heat wave while we are here.  The hottest day hits 110F in the sun, 96F inside our trailer as we can't use our air conditioner since we have no electrical hookup and it's not worth running our generator for long enough to cool the whole trailer down.  Thankfully we can run our ceiling fans off our batteries using our solar panels.  During our second day, we are evacuated from one of the trails (we were driving down the road from the trailhead) as the rangers are expecting a helicopter to land to airlift a hiker in distress.  We learn a few days later that it's due to a medical emergency, perhaps a heart attack.  Our initial guess is heat stroke as I myself experience intense heat reaction while we are hiking even though we drink plenty of water and I have a wet scarf around my neck to help keep me cool.  Fortunately, the days cool off while we are here, but the sun is still intensely hot.

Mexico on the left, Rio Grande, our campground on the right

 Our first hike is a nature trail that leads off just across from our campsite.  At the beginning of the trail is a small lagoon full of turtles, both soft shell and red-eared turtles, as well as ducks and fish.  We return here on our last day in the park and there are also two Great Blue Herons.  The trail leads up a small but steep, rocky hill that provides us with a nice view of the Rio Grande.  A wild horse wanders down onto the beach and drinks from the river.  We watch as it rolls around on its back in the sand, obviously enjoying the day.  We also see a roadrunner perched in an ocotillo plant (no small feat as roadrunners are a fairly large bird and the ocotillo has very tall, spindly branches) holding a lizard in its mouth for several minutes before eating it.  Interestingly, the roadrunner makes a cooing noise like a mourning dove while the lizard is dangling from its mouth.  Some Mexicans are also on the beach with their horses and we watch as they cross the river to the American side, then back to the Mexican side and ride to the small Mexican town called Boquillas (Bo-key-us).  Even though this hike is short, about two hours, I am extremely hot and exhausted when we return to the trailer.

The Mexicans with their Dr. Pepper

On the next day, we hike the Boquillas Canyon Trail which follows the Rio Grande downstream into a narrow canyon.  At various intervals, Mexicans have left small trinkets - roadrunners, tarantulas, cactus, etc. made of wire and decorated with beads - for tourists to buy by leaving a "donation" in a jar.  The Mexicans are watching from the other side of the river.  The rangers and park volunteers who work in the Visitors Centres have warned us that it is illegal to purchase these items.  Prior to 9-11, tourists here at Big Bend were allowed to wade across the river or go across in boats supplied by the Mexicans and shop in stores in Boquillas and eat in restaurants.  This was the main livelihood of the town.  But since 9-11 and the paranoid fear that has swept through this country, the border has been closed.  The Mexicans are not supposed to cross, but they do.  Tourists are warned not to cross the river as there is no Point of Entry - no customs officer with whom to make a claim for purchases or to identify your citizenship upon return to the US.  So the population of the town of Boquillas has decreased from 200 families to 30 families.  Everyone else has left.  Once a week, one of the town members drives 160 miles over a dirt road to the nearest town to get groceries and supplies for everyone in the town.  It is a tough life for those families who have remained and our hearts go out to them.  They cannot grow crops here as it is too hot and dry - it hasn't rained here in some parts of the park for over a year.  Or the river floods and washes everything away.  Brad asks one of the Mexicans "If I can give you anything besides money, what would it be?"  The response?  "Dr. Pepper!"  What a surprise.  They miss soda pop!  So Brad buys a few six packs of Dr. Pepper the next day and takes them back to the Mexicans.  Are they ever happy to get them and they're ice cold still.

We also drive out to the Hot Springs which used to be part of a resort before this was a National Park.  The Springs is right on the Rio Grande nestled at the end of a canyon.  The road to drive there is intriguingly dangerous - it's a built up one way road which drops off into a wash in the middle, with rocks jutting out from the sides of the cliff.  No large vehicles are allowed, including dual wheeled trucks which would be too wide to make some of the turns.  It's a little nerve-wracking!  The hot spring itself is about 105F, too hot to sit in during the day, although people do.  We think about coming back at night, but we'll have to see how tired we are.

Brad & Marilyn in the Chisos Mtns, Lost Mine Trail

Another hike we take is in the Chisos Mountains where it is 20 degrees Fahrenheit cooler - we hike the Lost Mine Trail, which has an elevation gain of 1,100 feet.  The trail is almost 5 miles round trip, but gives us unbelievable views of both the mountains and the desert below.  Even here on this mountain trail, it is hot in the sun, but in the shade the breeze is cool and refreshing.  There are warning signs that mountain lions and bears frequent the area, but we see neither.  Climbing the final peak at the top makes me feel like I'm climbing the Matterhorn.  It is a solid rock peak and when I peer over the edge, I can see straight down the cliff on the other side to the valley below.  It's another photo that will freak out my sisters.  This hike leaves us exhausted some five hours later, but the views are worth every step.

Marilyn in Santa Elena Canyon

Our last hike is at the western side of the park (we are camping at the east side); it is the Santa Elena Canyon Trail.  Here there is another campground, but it is a generator-free zone, and well, we like our generator to run our microwave and my hair dryer!  I live the way the I live, okay?  There is also a campground in the Chisos Mountains, but the road leading up to it is limited to vehicles of 20 feet in length or less, and we are about 50 feet with the truck and trailer.  We'd never make the hairpin turns.  Back to the hiking trail.  Santa Elena Canyon is an incredible gorge where the Rio Grande has eroded into the canyon leaving walls on either side of the river towering 1,500 feet!  It's an amazing sight.  We can see the gap in the mesa wall from a distance of about 10 or 15 miles away, and from there it doesn't look that impressive.  But from the river bed looking up the sides of the walls, we feel unbelievably insignificant.  We keep telling ourselves that the other side is Mexico; in fact half-way across the river is Mexico, and the river is only about 40 feet across.  We see no Mexicans here.  The trail rises from the river at first, switching back and forth up the cliff wall, and then makes a slow descent back down to the river.  We expect it to be clean and clear, but the water is brown, muddy and silty.  The grasses are 10 to 12 feet high; and the rocks that have fallen from above are huge and smoothed from the rushing water when the river is flowing at its peak.  We see some canoeists.  The canyon is 8 miles long, so perhaps they have run all 8 miles of it, although we read that there is a very dangerous section of rapids several miles upriver.  We see no wildlife along the trail, although we can hear small animals (rodents or birds likely) in the underbrush.  This is another amazing hike, in (finally) comfortable temperatures.

There is a lot more in Big Bend National Park to explore, as the park measures about 60 miles across from east to west by about 50 miles across north to south, meaning many miles of hiking trails yet to discover.  But I think we'll leave it for future years, and hopefully for cooler temperatures.

Observing the Skies in Texas

We arrive in western Texas under sunny blue skies, but another cold spell.  Fortunately, the trend is calling for warming.  We camp in a large picnic area about 9 miles north of the McDonald Observatory on Highway 118 in the Davis Mountains.  This free camping area was noted to us in our Frugal Shunpiker's Guide that we purchased from Marianne Edwards who lives in Elora, Ontario.  We've been using her guides throughout Arizona and New Mexico; they've been helping us to figure out where to hike and camp for free or on the cheap.  Yes, there is a state park about 20 miles down the road, but free and alone is soooo much better.  And it's beautiful here at the picnic area with big pine trees and other greenery (finally - TREES!).  It's dry here too so the smell reminds us of Yosemite National Park in California - a dry pine smell.  We're beside a dry wash and hear coyotes yipping at night.  Other picnicers pull in during the day and two cyclists from Quebec camp one night but are gone by daybreak.  The only unfortunate thing is that Brad and I have both picked up the flu bug.  I haven't had the flu in at least 15 or more years.  So instead of hiking and attending the star party at the Observatory on Tuesday night, we will have to wait until Friday since it doesn't run every night.

Prior to getting sick, we do go to the Observatory for a day tour, which is incredibly interesting and informative.  Our tour guide, Shannon (a man), is an amateur astonomer, but is very knowledgeable and rather humourous.  He presents a slide show in the theatre first, explaining about our sun, stars, galaxies and such; and ends with live telescope shots of our sun, highlighting some sunspots and filaments which are bursts of gases that usually erupt around sunspots.  Then we go up the mountain to see two of the telescopes.  The first telescope, the Harlan J. Smith telescope, is a single reflexive mirror measuring 107" in diameter - that's pretty big - not the biggest in the world, but big enough to be used by the many researchers here.  It is designed to shoot laser beams into space.  For example, I saw an episode of MythBusters in which they dispelled the myth that man did not walk on the moon (there are skeptics who don't believe!).  How this was proved was by firing a laser at the moon where Neil and Buzz landed because they left laser transmitters there.  So, if the signal is returned, then the transmitters are on the moon and someone had to put them there!  And on the MythBusters episode, the signal was returned.  It was a telescope like this one, or perhaps this very one, that was used to perform the test.  The second telescope on our tour is the fifth largest in the world, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, and is built with 91 1-meter hexagonal shaped mirrors that are fitted together to form one huge mirror that is 11 metres or 432 inches; however only 83% of this area is actually used bringing the diameter to 9.2 metres or 362 inches.  This one also isn't designed to view visible light, but rather invisible light rays - infrared, ultraviolet, microwave, gamma, x-ray, etc.  These invisible forms of light help researchers understand a lot about our universe - whether stars are traveling towards us or away from us, how hot a star is (blue is the hottest, red is only warm), and other such amazing discoveries.

By Friday night, we are both feeling better and go to the Star Party for my birthday!  First we attend the Twilight show, which is Shannon again doing a presentation in the theatre talking about our solar system in some detail, explaining each planet's orbit.  You know, it's amazing how much we forget from grade school, because we did learn all of this then.  And sure enough, Pluto has been bumped from planetary status; it's now just a "dwarf planet" - poor thing - along with four others.  Shannon uses software to put the planets into motion for us and shows us that Pluto's orbit is actually on a 17 degree incline from all the other planets in our solar system.  I don't remember that from school.  Earth and all the other 7 planets orbit the sun on an even plane, but Pluto's orbit, if viewed on a horizon doesn't.  Huh!

He also talks in some detail about the constellations and relates them to the signs of the zodiac.  How many are there?  Twelve?  I always thought so too.  But apparently there are really thirteen, but since people are superstitious of thirteen, the thirteenth, Ophiuchus, was booted out many years ago.  The signs of the zodiac - Aquarius, Pisces, Scorpius, etc. are constellations in the sky, and are segmented like counties on a provincial map.  The dates from one sign to another is truly supposed to be when the sun travels from one of the constellation's boundaries to the next.  I know the sun doesn't really travel; the Earth tilts, but you can imagine the sun traveling through the constellations throughout the year with the tilting of the Earth.  Some constellations have very small areas and others have large areas.  Scorpius, for example, has a very small area and would really only take the sun about 7 days to cross it, so those born in October/November would be ripped off.  After Scorpius, the sun passes through Ophiuchus, but nobody knows who that is, and it's the thirteenth sign, so Scorpius just got extended.  Most of the signs of the zodiac got averaged to roughly 30 days too, but if you have a map of the sky and their zodiac constellations, well, you'd see that how it is now isn't how it should really be.

We also go outside for some night viewing.  We get really lucky and see the space station go over us.  Apparently, there is a website you can go to where you enter your longitude and latitude and you can find out if and when the space station will appear in your sky.  Google it.  Our speaker points out many constellations including Orion, the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), Leo the Lion, and others.  He has a laser pointer that my son would kill for - it seems to reach the stars!  Then the moon rises from behind the mountain that the Hobby-Eberly Telescope is perched on - what a sight.  It is a full moon and, unfortunately for stargazing, lights up everything.  However, we will get to view the moon tonight through one of the telescopes.  There are six telescopes set up for us to view various stars and planets, but we won't be using the really big telescopes.  We get to see a couple of star clusters, which are less interesting because it's just like looking up in the sky.  But, we also get to look at Jupiter and four of its moons which are all aligned vertically above the planet, the middle cluster of stars in Orion's Belt which is also a gaseous cluster and is stunning, and our moon in its entirety using a filter to ease the brightness down to 13%.

To end the night, we watch a video called The Power of Tens, which starts with a man and a woman having a picnic in Chicago, and every 10 seconds the camera moves away by one more metre to the power of 10.  At first it doesn't seem to move too much, but then all of a sudden, we're in outer space, then out of our solar system, then for a while nothing, then suddenly out of our galaxy.  The camera stops at 10 to the power of 24 which I think is 1000 million light years.  Then it quickly zooms back in, focusing again on the man, then this time zooms in on his hand until we're looking at a single carbon atom, stopping at 10 to the minus 16 metres.  It is a fascinating 10 minute video.  Brad says we've seen a similar show on the Discovery Channel - I don't remember.  Age is a wonderful thing!  And the Star Party makes a great birthday party for me - celebrating with the moon, Jupiter and Orion to name a few.