When we filled out the paperwork for our back country kayak permits, we had to include name, address, etc. When the park ranger heard our name, she said, "You have a good name for around here." We had no idea what that might mean.
Then she explained that the most common cactus at Big Bend is the Engelmann prickly pear. The scientific name is actually Opuntia Engelmannii. We knew that Mark's grandfather had dropped the last "n" in their last name during World War II, so it looks like there is a well known botanist somewhere in the family!
We were excited to see some Engelmanns blooming in the Big Bend Ranch State Park. They were beautiful amongst the wildflowers!
Looking at all those buds, these cactus look to be some of the showiest around when they are in full bloom.
The pears can grow to be huge. You can see how big they are when compared to Denisa's hand.
But don't get your hand too close, because just like some of our other relatives, they have been known to bite.
The blooms are bright yellow with an iridescent red center. These blooms only last a few days, and then they shrivel to a light pink that is still pretty in its own way.
Here's a picture with a combination of flowers and the spent blooms.
And the final picture of this informative science lesson of the day, is a couple of nice looking Engelmanns enjoying a beautiful day in the desert.
After three days of hiking and kayaking in Big Bend National Park, we decided it was time to rest our bodies and take a road trip. The motorhome is parked about 20 miles from the entrance of the Big Bend Ranch state park. So we stopped by the visitor center to get information about the must-see things in the state park at its east entrance. We found out that you can't even get to most of the state park from here. The terrain is so rugged that the only way to get to most of the hiking trails is via the west entrance (some 60 miles away) and a very long gravel road. So we settled for the sites and hikes along hiway 170 and the eastern entrance.
The first stop was the Contrabando Movie Set. These buildings were built in 1985 for the filming of the movie "Uphill All the Way" starring Roy Clark, Mel Tillis, and Burl Ives. Since then, 9 different movies have been filmed here such as "Rio Dablos" in 1993, "Streets of Laredo" in 1995, "My Maria" in 1995, "Dead Man's Walk" in 1996, and "The Journeyman" in 2000. We list most of the movies here because we might rent one just to see if the landscape in them looks familiar to us.
If you don't recognize the dashing cowboy actor in the picture above, we're sure you won't recognize his co-star in the next picture.
Denisa is obviously enamored with the blooming wildflowers, so you will have to bear through occasional flower pictures on this tour of the state park. Some of the wildflowers were so thick that the side of the mountains turned blue with blue bonnets.
Mark thought the tiny purple flowers were pretty awesome as well, and they were every where!
When you look at a map of Hiway 170, you can see the "hill" notated. The locals call this "the big hill." Supposedly the largest incline allowed on Texas hiways is 15%, but this one was grandfathered in at 18%. We decided that we didn't want to take the motorhome down this stretch of road any time soon.
Oh look, it seems that Denisa has stuck in more wild flower pictures. They were so incredibly thick in the grass lands that it was unbelievable! The yellow and blue combinations were beautiful!
We had read about a really good hike on this stretch of the state park, so we stopped at the Closed Canyon trailhead. After a short hike through the open desert, we reached the mouth of a slot canyon.
The trail got quite narrow in places as the walls grew higher and higher.
Our hike included some scrambling over boulders that blocked our path. Denisa was glad to have Mark there to boost and pull her over some of the boulders. And Mark was glad to have Denisa there for moral support.
At one point the boulders were joined with pools of water to block our path. Mark (being the adventurous explorer that he is) went barefoot through the water to see what was around the next corner--and the next corner.
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It was a great hike, and we would certainly recommend the Lost Canyon to anyone in the Big Bend area. This picture is a reminder that there is always light at the end of the tunnel!
It appears that Denisa has the audacity to include yet more wildflower pictures--and this time she is even in them too!
Next stop of the state park tour is the Hoodoos Trail. We discovered these odd-shaped formations on a 1.5 mile trail. Denisa is standing next to the mushroom-shaped hoodoos, just to show how big these formations are. We also discovered that when the temperature gets over 80 degrees, hiking isn't nearly as fun. We are glad to be in Big Bend in mid-March when we have enjoyed days mostly in the 60's until today.
It appears that Denisa has found one more picture of a mountainside covered with wildflowers. She obviously loves wildflowers and mountains, and when you put the two together she can't control herself!
We have heard this is the best year for wildflowers in Big Bend since the spring of 1984. That has to do with the abundant spring rains they have had. We have seen the Rio Grande clear and blue earlier this week, then chocolate milk brown yesterday. We would describe the color today as "pea soup green." The current appears to be picking up, and we're glad we did our boomerang kayak trips earlier this week.
While we are out wandering His wonders, we must agree that these wildflowers are one of God's wonders! One last picture of a mountainside that has turned yellow because the wildflowers are so thick!
Our final stop in our road trip was at the Village of Lajitas. We found out that the mayor of the town is named Clay Henry, and there is a pen on the main road close to the town hall where he "offices." The pen was empty when we drove past, but we saw that the mayor was going for a walk near the dumpster--obviously viewing the town's utilities and infrastructure first hand. We have also heard that the goat mayor enjoys drinking beer, as proclaimed by several tshirts we have seen in the area.
After our fun experience kayaking in the eastern part of Big Bend, we thought we were up for the crown jewel of kayaking in the park--the Santa Elena Canyon. So we got another back country permit and headed down the Ross Maxwell scenic road towards the canyon.
It was a cool morning, so we took our time getting to the river. We made stops at the abandoned Sam Nail Ranch, and stopped to take pictures at the Sotol Vista. Sotol look like the yucca (or soapweed) plants that we have in Oklahoma, but on steroids. Some of them are blooming now, and their blooms can weigh 70 pounds. We have seen their woody stalks used for fencing.
We also took the Burro Mesa Pouroff trail. This is a beautiful area and it is hard to picture how big it is. Here's a "Where's Waldo" game for you. Can you find Denisa in her bright turquoise blouse in the middle of all those sizable hills.
This is where the water rushes out from the mountainous Chisos area into the desert. We have gotten some rains, but the wash area was still dry. You can get an idea of the size of the pouroff when you see Denisa standing under it. We can only imagine what this area might look like with a waterfall pouring off that cliff above her head.
We also tried to get an idea of the size of the mountain next to this hike. So Mark hiked through the thorns and bush to stand a third of the way up its slope. He's that tiny blue speck that we had to circle in red so he would be visible. Denisa thinks that this is a picture of one rock-hard hunk in the middle of one big hunk of rock!
Just so you know, he tore one of his favorite pairs of hiking pants on that off-trail scramble to get in that picture. He also had several spots of blood on those pants where the brambles got through the material and poked him. We truly do shed blood and sweat for the pictures on this blog!
By the afternoon it was warm enough to get in the water, so we inflated the kayak at the boat ramp for the highlight of the day--the Santa Elena canyon. We chose the boat ramp a mile downstream from the canyon because we didn't have to carry the boat as far to get it in the water. This meant an additional mile of paddling upstream, but we are obviously experienced kayakers that could handle that. Bad decision! Next time we will carry the boat and enter at the mouth of the canyon. We had a tough time and had to portage several times in that mile. There was a group of first-time canoers that started the same time and place that we did, and they never made it past the first bend in the river going upstream.
But we prevailed against the current and the shallow areas where we were forced to walk up-stream. The ranger had called this "canoe assisted hiking" and we got quite good at it. We were certainly glad to get our first glimpse of the slot canyon that the river eventually flows into.
After that mile we got to our destination, the beach at the mouth of the Santa Elena canyon. Stunning!
It's here that the Rio Grande River dips into the canyon that it has carved over thousands of years. Lucky kayakers like us are surrounded by 1500 foot canyon walls on both sides as we enter the canyons!
We were still paddling upstream, but the water was calmer in the canyon. Instead of the blue/green clear water from yesterday, we had water that resembled chocolate milk today. There have been rains up-river that increased the flow and muddied the water.
That chocolate milk water meant that we couldn't see the rocks below, so we didn't know where the deepest channels were. That made navigating upstream and downstream more challenging.
Actually, Mark got much more experience with the rocks, as he pulled us through some of the worst rapids of the day while Denisa stayed in the kayak. That allowed for some boat pictures as Mark was still standing in the water for these.
It was tiring (especially for Mark) but the pay-off was superb views up and down the river! We wish we had counted the number of times we exclaimed, "Wow! This is so awesome!" on our journey on the river today.
We paddled and pulled ourselves another two miles up the canyon until we got to the turn-around spot at fern canyon. We were ready for a nice leisurely float back to the car!
We met up with a group of college students that were floating down river. As they paddled ahead of us, it was good to use their canoes to get some scale of the size of the canyon wall. You can see the profile of their two canoes at the bottom of that majestic cliff.
The sun was lowering in the sky as we exited the canyon, lighting up one side of the canyon walls and mirroring their image in the water. It was a very beautiful day!
We have had our sea eagle kayak for years, and it has served us well. We have toted it all over the state of Oklahoma, and even over the country on vacations. We intend to give it a hard workout now that we are traveling full-time. This trip down this canyon would have cost us $300 if we used the local outfitter to provide equipment and transportation. But it was a free day for us since we had our own boat. So the kayak paid for itself today! Of course, we might have paid for part of the journey in our labor to paddle and pull up-river.
We drove back to the motorhome on one of the maintained dirt roads inside the national park. We had the road to ourselves as the setting sun lit up some of the mountain groups we passed. At times the faraway mountains looked purple in the setting sun,
while another group of foothills closer to us glowed like gold in the setting light.
We were blessed with another beautiful day with a beautiful sunset at the end. We feel like we have really wandered through His wonders here at Big Bend!
We enjoyed living in Terlingua for 8 days. We found that we didn't have to always go into the national park to have adventures, because we had fun even in our tiny little town. As you can imagine, Denisa especially enjoyed all the wildflowers in town.
We found that we could ride our bikes from our RV park all the way to the National Park.
We also found that this was a good place to watch the sunset. We really like how the setting sun lights up the foot hills around us.
It was a picturesque ride home as we watched the changing skies all the way back to the motorhome!
With the beautiful skies, we couldn't pick just one sunset picture this time.
On Saturday we got rain almost all day. It was a good time to wash all that laundry that had been filling up the hamper, and catch up on some blog writing. There was an hour or so that the rain quit, so we took off on a walk around our edge of town. Has Denisa mentioned that the wild flowers are spectacular this year?
We decided to try to climb the foothill that is closest to us, so Mark lead the way on this scramble hike.
This is the only time we have seen this kind of red spiny cactus, and it was even flowering!
Denisa found a comfortable place to sit while Mark did more rock scrambling up the mountain. It was about this time that we heard the first thunder, and realized we needed to get to lower ground fast! It was a scrambling sprint down the mountain and a run back to the motorhome before the rain drenched us!
The rain has changed our plans at times, but it has also blessed us in many ways. Tucked all over this hillside, we kept finding these fern-like plants that looked vaguely familiar. Then Denisa realized she had one of these at a child.
It was called a resurrection plant. Because when you bought it, it was all dried up and curled in a ball. . .
and when you put it in water it will "resurrect" into a beautiful fern again!
All over that mountain were ugly dry ferns that were just waiting for the moisture we have been enjoying, and they were resurrecting to life! That's another one of His wonders that mystifies us!
We waited a day for the trails to dry out, and we decided to try our bike ride for a second time. Some friendly neighbors in our park told us about some petroglyphs on the side of a mountain that we could get to on our bicycles. It sounded like an adventure that we couldn't miss. So the last morning we were in Terlingua, we got the motorhome all packed up. Then we took out for our last adventure in Big Bend.
We found that the road to the mountain got wetter and muddier with every curve. We slogged through the mud on our bikes until they were caked with cement-like muck. We finally admitted defeat and decided to turn back home. Of course, that meant going back through all the mud again.
We found that the mud was so deep that it would hit your pedal as you tried to ride through. This throws your balance off completely. The only alternative to falling completely over is to put your foot down in the muck to save yourself. This happened not once, but twice to Denisa. She might be smiling in this picture, but sometimes laughing is the only thing that keeps you from crying.
It took us half an hour to clean the mud off our bikes enough to load them onto their rack. Then it took the rest of the hour to clean Denisa's shoes. Sometimes the sights around Terlingua aren't as pretty and successful as we would like!
