Day 13 - First Day Exploring Big Bend National Park

Ken and I were up by 7:30 and decided to make omelettes and a bowl of fresh fruit for breakfast.  We also packed our lunches for our trip into Big Bend Nat'l Park.  We decided to watch some TV this morning since we can't get even 1 radio station here in the CG.  There are none to be had!!!!!!  We ate our breakfast outside in the beautiful surroundings.

At 9:30 the 4 of us left the CG in Gregory's CRV to go to Big Bend.  We were able to all get into the Park for FREE since us older folks (Ken and I) have our Senior Citizen Park Passes!  That made turning 62 better!!!!!  It was 3 miles from the CG to the entrance and then another 22 miles to get to the main Park Headquarters/Visitors Center.  We had a tremendous Park Ranger who told us all about the park, the trails, and the wildlife.  It was obvious that she loved her job.  While there we watched a 20 minute film about Big Bend that was so well done and so informative.  This national park probably gets less visitors per year than most of the parks, probably because it is far off the "beaten path".  But it really has a lot of diversity - mountains, desert, and the Rio Grande River.  

Love all the beautiful cacti and some of them are starting to
bloom.  In several weeks they will be magnificent!

We are now driving towards the Visitors Center....

,,,,,and we continue driving.....

.....and driving....

,,,but the scenery makes the drive so worth it!!!!

Many beautiful wildflowers along the way.

From the large visitors center, we drove on a different road for 6 miles to the Chisos Basin area and enjoyed our lunch on a picnic table overlooking that area.  Then we hiked the short Window View Trail with wonderful views.  We left there and stopped at another trail about 2 miles down the road - Lost Mine Trail.  The Park Ranger had suggested we walk at least the 1st mile of the 2.4 mile trail to see spectacular views.  We ended up walking the entire trail which rose 1,200 feet to the top of Lost Mine Peak at 7,600 ft. elevation.  The view was breathtaking.  When we returned we had walked 4.8 miles and 13,300 steps.  Pretty good for our 1st day of hiking!  We all had hiking poles and they are really a big help when climbing and descending!

The little opening in the middle is called the Window!  That \
is the view we had while eating our lunch!

Not a bad place to eat!

We saw these deer while we were eating.  The deer here are
much smaller than the deer in PA!

The view through the window!

Don't you just love the hats?????  Keeps the sun away!

Starting on the Lost Mine Trail!  It kept going up...

....and up

and up

wow we are getting high

Quite a view!

One of the most flowering cacti we saw on the trail!

Now the walk down!

We only got back to the CG at 6:30 and boy were we hungry!  Ken grilled us salmon and filet mignon and I made us salads and fresh sauteed green beans.  We ate outside with Chuck and Melissa, but the flies were a bit pesty.  (No mesquitoes bothered us!).  We cleaned up and because it was already 8, we decided we would not play cards tonight!  We all needed showers and wanted to download today's photos and post on our blogs!  Sometimes it is hard to keep up!

Saw this little "buddy" on the road on the way back to the CG!
He was about the size of Ken's hand.  Chuck thought Ken should
put his hand beside him so you could see just how large he
really is!  Ken said, NO!

Ken took this photo from the car.  Looks like a man resting beside
the rock!

Fortunately we didn't see any rattlesnakes today, only deer, lizards, and a tarantula.  They say the nighttime skies in this area are beautiful because it is so dark.  We hope to do some star gazing and maybe catch a sunset in the park before we leave this area.

This was an incredible day and there will be so many more to come!