Big Bend Day 1/2

We wanted to hit a tough-to-get national park on Mark's last Spring Break. He suggested Big Bend National Park, so we found ourselves in west Texas. It was two flights, one to Austin, and one to Midland, and then a three hour drive to our duplex in Terilingua. That meant a lot of airport food and a lot of sitting down. Luckily, Mom ordered grocery pick up before we left, and the boys were happy to try Whataburger, a Texas original. 

Whataburger was yummy!

The best part of this day was the night drive into Terilingua. We were cruising along a little under the posted speed limit when we spotted several deer just off the road. That surprised us a bit, but we are used to them, so we slowed down. Just a little further on, we saw a porcupine waddling right along the white line. We quickly turned around and tried to get a few photos. Not five minutes after that, we came across a herd of javelina. It wasn't the last herd we saw, either, as we saw around 3 dozen along the side of the road in the cover of darkness. Soon rabbits appeared everywhere. We must have passed nearly 30 of those as we continued south toward the border. Finally, just as we were pulling into Terilingua, a coyote ran through the headlights. We were so excited! We had expected to see a few animals, notably birds, on this trip, but we saw five major mammals before we even got to our destination! And javelinas were a first for us. That made for a really great Day 1!

The Texas skies were pretty at sunset!

Some of the javelinas we saw.

On the second day, we ate a quick breakfast in the duplex and then drove into the park. We were surprised that it wasn't very busy, and the morning was nice and cool. We drove into the Panther Junction Visitor Center and got Seth started on the Junior Ranger. Then we drove back to the Chisos Basin. The Lost Mine Trail was the only full parking lot we saw, so we continued into the main Basin area. We did a short hike called the Window Loop, and a longer hike called Chisos Basin. Since this is the mountainous part of the park, we were hoping to see some animals, and we did.

First, we saw a tiny buck with just one antler eating along the side of the trail. Then we saw a few cool birds including a bright blue Mexican Jay, a black vulture, a canyon wren, and a canyon towhee. This trail was nice, and it was still fairly cool by the time we left late morning. 

This is our 38th national park.

Big Bend has lots of different terrains.

Seth did the Junior Ranger.

This canyon wren was singing. 

Curve-billed thrasher

Mom loved the purple cactus.

Window View Trail 

The deer didn't mind us.

This Mexican Jay was so blue and beautiful.

We were hot, but having fun!

Our next stop was at a small oasis called Dugout Wells. We'd heard it had a nature trail good for birding. The trail was great, though it was getting hotter, and the birds were good, too. We found a curve-billed thrasher and a white-winged dove. There were also plenty of mockingbirds. We enjoyed the signs around the nature trail, taking it slow and easy. Then at the end of the trail, Mom made lunch on the picnic tables right on the edge of the oasis. 

We found a lot of great plants.

And tons of lizards.

It was pushing into the mid-90's on the thermometer, but we had one more hike to try. This one was almost three miles, and it went around a large craggy mountain called Lone Mountain. It was flat and stayed right on the canyon floor, but we didn't love it. The boys were hot, the scenery was repetitive, and the trail seemed to stretch on far longer than it should have. Still, we made it without too much complaining.

Dax was a great hiker.

Big Bend was an interesting park.

It was April, but it was already so hot!

A tall yucca stalk!

We had a lot of fun!

There was one more thing to see in that area of the park, which was the new fossil exhibit. This has been updated over the past year, and it had some really cool areas. There was a massive crocodile and a lot of informative signs. Best of all, it was well-shaded, so we were able to cool down a bit.

This is a large dinosaur bone.

We love fossils.

We drove out of the park around 2 o'clock. We decided it was too hot to do much else and we'd pass the middle of the day back in the duplex, where we planned to eat dinner anyway. Then we'd come back into the park when it cooled down. On the way out, we saw a roadrunner, but we saw something else that surprised us. It looked like a bighorn sheep, but was more golden in color, and its horns curved differently. We weren't sure what it was. Later, we found out that it was an invasive species called an Aoudad. Also known as a Barbary Sheep, it was brought in from North Africa around the 1960's to be hunted on private game reserves. Of course, it spread to Big Bend and has been there ever since.

Such an interesting animal.

After tacos, gas, and a little napping, we went back into the park. We found a parking space at the busy hike to Lost Mine, and we did a mile up that steep trail right at dusk. This is supposed to be bear and cougar country, but we were not lucky this day. Still, the air had cooled nicely, and the mountains were really beautiful. We were glad to be hiking again.

This trail was just right in the evening.

We were grateful for a bench to rest.

It felt so good to be hiking as a family!

The views were beautiful.

This was a great hike.

For sunset we went back to the Window View Loop. There were about two dozen people there watching the sun sink slowly into the Window. We got some nice pictures, and the boys were really excited to spot a gray fox right on that tiny trail. They couldn't get a great picture of it because it was dusk, but they didn't mind. They were just happy and surprised to see yet another large mammal at Big Bend National Park.

Sunset was beautiful at the Window View.

We even got a family picture.

So gorgeous!