Friday, Feb 5We met at the car at 7:30am with the plan of heading straight to the trail. At the last second as we approached the turn to the trailhead I got the idea that we should go visit the DOM rock. I hadn’t been to the Big Hill in five years and I wanted to see what it was like at dawn. A low fog was hanging over the Rio Grande as we got closer to the Big Hill. I stopped at one point to snap a photo. We opened the car doors and the sweet smell of wet creosote made us happy. We took in deep breaths savoring the rare smell that is one of the joys of the desert.
As we approached the Big Hill we saw some bluebonnets in bloom. It seemed pretty early in the season but there they were. I made a mental note to stop on the way back to the trailhead and get a photo but I forgot. The view from the hill was wonderful. The shadow of the hill was slowly receding as the sun rose and the golden glow of the sun was taking its place. The river wound its way through the valley below. We took a few photos then went to visit the DOM rock which was made semi-famous in the movie Fandango. The view from the DOM rock was awe-inspiring with the low fog over the river.
Once we finished with DOM we headed to the trailhead. We hoped to have the entire trail to ourselves but we saw one other car arrive just after us and a couple get out and start hiking. We waited a few minutes hoping to let the other hikers get ahead of us. The plan worked because once we started hiking there was no sign of them and we never saw another person on our entire hike.
We had to hike through a wash to get around the new putting green the Lajitas had relocated after the flood a few years ago. The green was not very green and was in fact covered with weeds. Just on the other side of the green was the little steps over the park fence that put us into the national park.
After a mile of hiking over flat ground we had to climb up the saddle which is a 500 foot ascent to get onto the mesa proper. It is a pretty steep climb but once we were on the mesa the views into Mexico were outstanding. The river could be seen along with countless mesas and buttes and mesas with more mesas stacked on top of them. We soon noticed La Mariposa, the mountain shaped like a butterfly if viewed on a topo or satellite image.
La Mariposa
The Saddle we had hiked up a mile back:
After about three miles we came to the first water in a wash. Several more washes had water in them before we came to the first actual official tinaja, Tinaja Rana. There was plenty of water in the rocks but we hiked back to Tinaja Rana to see what it looked like. It was a large bowl of water about 10 feet down in a crevice. To get the water would require a bottle on the end of a rope but we did not need water so we looked it over then explored a rock shelter nearby. The shelter had rocks stacked up forming a little fence. Inside we found a penny and the remnants of some old tin cans.
Water in one of the washes:
Looking the other way down the wash:
Tinaja Rana
Canyon leading to Tinaja Rana:
In the rock shelter:
Past Tinaja Rana we came to a trail junction. The trail that we were not taking wound its way to the river at the Metates Camp, a river camp at the mouth of the canyon. Soon after this junction we came to another trail junction. This time the trail went south to Entrance Camp, another river camp. We actually took the incorrect trail for about 50 yards before realizing we were not going the right way.
Trail junction - we hiked to the right above the cliff face.
We continued towards Tinaja Blanca. We did not stop to look for the Tinaja Blanca proper as the wash leading to the tinaja was full of small holes filled with water.
We soon came to yet another trail junction. We missed this junction and started climbing up the flank of Canyon Flag a short ways before realizing this was not the way we wanted to go. After spotting the correct trail we realized the trail we had veered off on went to Tinaja Lujan. We backtracked and got back on track. After hiking along the flank of the Three Sisters we stopped near the Sinkhole and debated as to whether we should cache water or not. We decided not to as we were not entirely certain we would come back the same way. We skipped exploring the sinkhole. We really wanted to make it to the rim of the mesa by dark. We could now see the Chisos Mountains beyond the rim of the mesa which was very enticing.
Three Sisters:
Chisos coming into view:
The trail grew more and more faint and finally we lost it. We were mainly following game trails at that point and once those disappeared we just tried to stay on top of the washes. This proved to be impossible as the washes were all crossing the route we needed to follow to get to the rim. The off-trail hiking was tough due to the rocks and ups and downs as we went through wash after wash. At one point we scared an Aoudad. He ran to the top of a wash and stopped, framed by the distant Chisos.
With little time and little energy to spare before sunset we finally reached the rim. We hiked along the rim for a while looking for a good camping spot and found one with excellent views. We had hiked 12.9 miles and were exhausted. After setting up camp we gathered our dinner and found a comfortable spot to watch the sun set. We had some Gatorade and blew bubbles as we watched the show. We tossed a few rocks over the rim but never did hear them hit the ground due to the distance of the fall. The light show was mind blowing. At one point Matt ran to get something from the tent and startled a group of Aoudad. They views rivaled any in the park. After dark we crawled in our sleeping bags early and passed out.
Pano of our view - the "V" shaped shadow is Santa Elena Canyon.
Cerro Castellan at 5:51pm
Cerro Castellan at 6:22pm
This could be a rock shelter...
...except you would need ropes to get to it!
Another pano
Emory Peak
A small town in Mexico from our campsite:
