Mesa de Anguila

[Alien]

Dear Hikers:

I'm planning a backpacking/primitive camping trip to the Big Bend NP at the beginning of 2007. I visited the Big Bend several years ago and loved the land and... Terlingua (have you ever visited that place at night? Fantastic atmosphere), but I had time only for some short hikes. So this time I would like to have two 3-days/2-nights solo hikes in the more remote areas of the park. I love solo hikes and I've hiked a lot in Europe (I'm from Poland), Montana, Washington State, Georgia, both Carolinas, and now in Florida, where I live... and where, yes, you can have some exciting backpacking trips! I'm thinking about exploring Mesa de Anguila. Will I find solitude there? Will March be a good time for my trip? Any other areas in the park you would like to suggest?  (I'm thinking about Elephant Tusk after reading all those interesting reports and advices in that thread.) Thanks a lot, you seem to be a bunch of wonderful people!

(Legal) Alien

PS. Do I need a free-standing tent in BiBe?

[Alien]

What?  I am a Kangaroo Rat?

[presidio]

I'm thinking about exploring Mesa de Anguila. Will I find solitude there? Will March be a good time for my trip?

Oh yeah, there'll be plenty of solitude to go along with the lack of shade. It's a lightly visited area of the park made more remote by the loss of a shorter informal access point a number of years ago. March could be getting warm already...go early in the month.

Hiking Anguila is sort of like hiking in the Dead Horse Mountains but not as steep. Both areas are seldom visited and are a treat for properly prepared hikers.

Any other areas in the park you would like to suggest?  (I'm thinking about Elephant Tusk after reading all those interesting reports and advices in that thread.)

Lay out your maps and pick a spot far from the developed trails and road network. Anywhere you go you will find neat stuff that most never see.

(Legal) Alien

From Roswell?

PS. Do I need a free-standing tent in BiBe?

Highly advised in all cases, essential in the desert.

[Casa Grande]

What?  I am a Kangaroo Rat?

keep posting,  you'll graduate soon :)

[WL2]

This hike is covered in another thread but the link below has a lot of pictures of the Mesa.  WARNING!!  The link will start loading about a gazzillion MB worth of pictures, be prepared.

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~moore/personal/big-bend-photos/index.html

[Alien]

Thank you all!  The pictures our great, I can't wait to see it with my own eyes.

No, Presidio, I didn't come to the US via Roswell, although I am short and bald, so some could think so  :lol:

Since you say that March can be already pretty hot, I may come to Texas in February.  Would it be a better month to do my hikes?

Yes, David, I hope I will be soaring like you soon.

Alien

[chisos_muse]

Thank you all!  The pictures our great, I can't wait to see it with my own eyes.

No, Presidio, I didn't come to the US via Roswell, although I am short and bald, so some could think so  :lol:

Since you say that March can be already pretty hot, I may come to Texas in February.  Would it be a better month to do my hikes?

Yes, David, I hope I will be soaring like you soon.

Alien

Welcome, Alien! :D
You didn't pop out of anyone's chest when you were born, did you? :shock:
I've been to Sarasota, from what I remember it was perdy....it was also about 20 years ago! :lol:
Short and bald ain't so bad....if you were tall and furry, why, you'd be bigfoot! :roll:

You'll get to pick your own lil animal someday....but David is the only Golden Eagle on the board 8)   You can be another soaring friend, though! :D

[presidio]

Since you say that March can be already pretty hot, I may come to Texas in February.  Would it be a better month to do my hikes?

Yes, it would definitely be cooler. Generally, winter in Big Bend is quite mild, excepting the occasional bone chiller that may sweep through for a few days. You usually can wear shorts and a t-shirt on most winter days....the nights are a tad cooler.

The one thing you may want to ensure, particularly in March is that you avoid the week of spring break for TX schools. While Mesa de Anguila won't be affected, the tourist areas of the park are overrun then and developed campsites can be very scarce.

[SHANEA]

you avoid the week of spring break for TX schools.

Spring Break in Texas generally lasts for more than a week - plan that at least the first three weeks of March will be quite busy.  Even at it's busiest, BIBE is AWESOME.  

Check out the weather trends at

http://www.nps.gov/bibe/visit/weather.htm

We day hiked over in BBRSP over in late December 2005 and it was rather warm - ok, call it hot.

Welcome Alien - you are home!  Photo taken at at undisclosed location on Mesa de Anguila 2003.



pHOTO

[presidio]

Photo taken at at undisclosed location on Mesa de Anguila 2003.

Is that Elvis? That IS Elvis! I'm all shook up.

[BigBendHiker]

Is that Elvis? That IS Elvis! I'm all shook up.

Don't step on my blue suede shoes!


BBH

Moderator note:  Keep it up guys and I'll have to send you all to Off-Topic purgatory.  Either that are I'll start deleting...

[TheWildWestGuy]

The Mesa De Anguila is very lightly visited even during March but if you could avoid the 2nd-3rd week of March that would be best.  The "shoulder" seasons (late Sept-Early Nov) or Late Feb - Early April) are the best times to visit as long as you avoid Spring Break.   The days are still long but not brutally hot and the nights are cool and comfortable.   The Park Service can give you a small page size map and description of the Mesa and potential water sources on the Mesa.  Tinaja Rana is probably the most reliable and would be a good overnight trip which you could extend longer and go down to the Rio Grande or to the "Point" above Santa Elena Canyon.   Other than that I would recommend the Dodson Trail, Juniper Canyon, Smokey Creek via Mule Ears, or the Fresno/Elephant Tusk drainage.   All these areas have at least some water sources and are less-visited than the Basin or S. Rim.  You can also get to most of them without a high-clearance vehicle.  Depends a lot on what your looking for and how far you want to go/backpack on any given day... TWWG

[EdB]

The Mesa is pretty hard core, at least from the NPS description. I've read some trip reports, and most everyone agrees it's awesome, but I think they've all been hiking in groups and made a point to say you better know what you're doing out there because there's little room for error.

I'd say you should go the the NPS website for BIBE and look at what they say about the Mesa. They have a "map", but it's not something you can or should use for hiking. As they put it, "The trails are not obvious and may be overgrown with grass and shrubs after rainy summers."

It wouldn't be a good place to get lost, so if you're going solo and aren't real good with a topo map, you'd be taking a big chance, IMO. If you want to see what it's like, I guess you could hike up from Lajitas a little ways as long as you don't go too far.

I was in BIBE part of the first week of March this year, and there were lots of kids there on break. I think the colleges started their breaks a day or two after I left, thank God. Go in February.

[presidio]

Moderator note:  Keep it up guys and I'll have to send you all to Off-Topic purgatory.  Either that are I'll start deleting...

Oh, poo!  :(  It was the photo that made me do it.

[presidio]

The Mesa is pretty hard core, at least from the NPS description.

It is hard country, but keep in mind the NPS writes their stuff for the average tourist who is not going off someplace like that and if they did they'd probably require rescue. That's the whole point of the advice: to discourage as many people as possible from getting into trouble way out there.

Once you climb up on the Mesa, it is remarkably level but that still doesn't negate the lack of water and shade.

Once, a group of us hiked a trail in the Grand Canyon. There was a prominent sign warning that only the most experienced of backpackers should attempt it. There was brief concern until we realized WE were those experienced backpackers. We had trail chopping with machetes under our belts in trailless Mexican jungle near the town of Valles; a place that had some shade but was just as hot and with no surface water to be had.

This kind of NPS advice is one of those nebulous things that always seem to imply someone else has the ummpf to do it, but maybe you don't.