Big Bend N.P. trip 9/17/09-9/21/09

Howdy! I just got back from my first trip to the NP, thought I'd share a bit of it.

First, despite never having been there before, but having read other stories/reports on here, and from folks I know I really believe late September might just be one of the best times to visit the park: weather in the mountains in the mid-50s with highs in the upper 60s on Thursday (light rain, partly cloudy) up to 103 around Mariscal Mine/Fresno during the days with nights in the mid 60s- again partly cloudy (thank goodness). Just wonderfully forgiving and varied weather. When you think it's too hot it sprinkled or a cloud saved the day. Maybe it was a fluke, but wow, what a happy one for us.

Also- if you're coming in from further East than Del Rio be prepared for at least 1 Border Patrol stop going to the park, and 2-3 on the way back. We had a total of 4 Border Patrol checks: didn't get lucky with any of them, even the first being at 2:30am around Lake Armistad.

Day 1- checked in and went to our first site for 2 days: Pine Canyon 4. Really a wonderful site if you have more than 1 tent, otherwise I could see PC5 being nice. Very pretty. Some folks had left a number of cans of beans and tuna in the bear box. Since I drove all night we got our tents up and I fell asleep in a camp chair without putting on anything for the sun- I woke up a few hours later with a nasty burn (didn't think about it given the heavy clouds and cold weather). hehe. Puttered around the area, explored the trail, found 2 rattlesnakes both of whom were camera shy (western diamond backs), and called it early (still exhausted from 12 hours of driving- don't ask why so long). The crickets were kind enough to sing me to sleep yet again. The rain didn't actually let up with the on/off till about 8pm, still very lovely weather though, and the clouds coming in lower than the tops of the mountains made for some fantastic photos.

Day 2- got up 'early', coffee'd up and headed to the Basin. Our original plan was the full course of the South Rim, possibly side-tracking to Emory Peak in 1 day. Well one of our group could not, and by the time we approached South Rim (having made it through the full Laguna Meadow trail) given the time we headed back. Sad, but know I'll get back to it solo possibly in a month or 2. I'd like to set aside a week and take my time working around the mountain completely. 2 of us did some extra exploration, found some Javalina who acted like we weren't there, met some nice volunteers, and headed back towards Pine Canyon for the night. More snakes, discovered giant wolf spiders which are smaller than the ones by us, and that tarantulas like to get on their hind legs. Also: Deer, and these blue birds all over the mountain. We were confused by the presence of 2 different sizes of cat prints in the trails: we'd presume 1 to be a mountain lion, but the other...bobcat? Photos of all this too.

Day 3- We decided to check out Hot Springs today. The person in our group who had been to BiBe before, and had done the full Chisos experience over a week period had never been outside of the Chisos in the park, so it was a real experience for us all. Well, mostly the 100+ degrees + Humidity reminded us of the current weather from home: bad. The folks from Boquillas leave a little sign and an honor-system payment jar for the few goods they offer at the Hot Spring. The Hot Spring itself was, thankfully, filled with silt and only about 4 inches of water rest on top of it. I say thankfully because despite my friends my idea of 'fun' isn't soaking in 100+ degree water in 100+ degree weather with wicked nasty humidity. Got some nice shots of the interior 'art' from the general store there (no wire in photos). Then we headed to the Rio Visitor Center, discovered these giant frickin' crows which seemed more bold than the Javalinas of the previous day. Ice'd up we started down the River Road East towards our next camp: Fresno. We had been previously warned (on check-in) about a 'bad' 1 foot drop off. On the way there we pulled up next to a park Ranger in a truck who warned us as well and sent us on our way (Interesting note: There seems to be more rangers/workers in the park than visitors during our trip, hehe). We found the 1 foot drop off- looks worse than it is, and in the 3 shots I took of our 4WD Pathfinder going over the thing it really looks like nothing. Still there are some really much nastier surprises than that if someone is unsuspecting. Took us about 1.5-2 hours to get to Fresno (stopping for the occasional photo). Being that it was about 2:30pm with *no* clouds, and 103 degrees we decided that making camp would be painful yet for some reason thought exploring Mariscal Mines would be the thing to do (hah). Got up to the (what I presume) was some sort of burning buildings with remains of ceramic pipes and sat in the shade for a bit. Some higher power must have read my mind- thick clouds came out of nowhere! Refreshed I headed up the 'proper' path to the other buildings and the mines themselves. Explored a bit, checked out the overlook on the right, the path behind the mines, some stairs I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be on. Lots of photos. Forgot to reapply sun screen- burned more on arms and legs. Went to Fresno and set up camp, and relaxed 'early' today. Everyone agrees that while Pine Canyon (and later Croton Springs) were pretty, and the weather was great, Fresno was our favorite site to camp. There are a ton of these little 'zillapeds' in this area. To the North East of Frenso someone has made a rock circle in the brush (Bongo bangin time?) No snakes, no spiders, lots of lizards around this area and the whole River Road though.

Day 4- Got up before 9am and despite the very cool air, the sun was punishing us. Packed in record time and headed further west down the River Road. Many wonderful spots to see west of Fresno compared to East. Really nice. At one point, I think just past Loop Camp, where you can see the River full from your car there is a pull off. We saw folks camping on the Mexico side. Really eye opening cliffs visible in Mexico. We were all really curious about them. No snakes, no spiders, just lizards here, and buzzards. Also we started following a trail of old survey markers dated from like 1943. We took pictures of several, then I stopped (friends kept searching and taking photos for some reason). That killed hours+ the 28 miles left till Castolon Visitor Center. Ooof. Checked out Santa Elana- decided we want to try a river trip in the near future (though only 1 of us are experienced enough for it I think). Drove up the Scenic Drive, very lovely, many photos. I only wish I had more time to explore the trails/areas off the drive. Made camp at Croton Springs. Had a visit from a solo Coyote (it howled about 10 feet behind a cactus, so loud, woke everyone up, then split when we ran out). Something which eats prickly pears also showed up in the night- we have no idea what would eat the prickly pears. Explored the trail, then headed into Study Butte to shower and over to the Starlight. Looked like some sort of Pot-luck thing was going on next door, and a couple with guitars sang everyone a funny/dirty song. Had a few beers outside, everyone went to some clearing with plastic chairs and we went in to eat.

A note about Croton Springs if anyone has yet to camp there: It's a super great and convenient spot if you want to camp and visit 'town' and come back possibly after dark. Otherwise I'd avoid it- You're close enough to the road that you hear every car going by. There is construction going on within eye-sight of the camp (flashers on all night). And we had a good freak out when headlights started coming down the road (they were turning around thank goodness) after dark: unlike most backcountry campsites which require 4WD Croton Springs could be accessed with a tricycle. That being said- the tent 'pads' are dirt, which means soft. The view of the Chisos is just awesome, and the weather was great. If there were no cars driving by (and this on a Sunday night) it'd have been great. Also: there were these 2 freaky moving lights which seemed to flicker red/white-ish to the North West. We pulled out a telescope and couldn't figure it out, only to say it wasn't an airplane warning light on something. But they were freaky. The proximity for things such as Gas/food is nice- Study Butte is much cheaper than the Park, and the distance between Panther Junction vs. Study Butte is in favor of Study Butte I think, at least the prices and goods available make it worthwhile, plus everyone there is so nice.

All in all a great first trip to the park. As soon as I sort out photo posting I might post a few, though I have over 1000, and I've only processed about 150 so far. If anyone has any questions about current conditions just ask- we did the entire River Road East through West, and drove the complete circuit around the park stopping at most of the pull offs, went to every visitor center, and made more than a few unmentioned off-trail hikes.