Epic 20 Year Wedding Anniversary Trip...Big Bend National Park...August 30 (Day 5)

(Kim's Perspective)
Today we explored the park and were completely shocked at how amazing this place is.  We've been to a lot of National Parks (we've visited 32 of the 43 parks in the lower 48 states that are reachable by car) and have spent our vacations over the last 20 years trying to see all of them.  We both have our favorites, which are for good reason and are self explanatory (e.g. Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon), but this park is meeting a lot of my requirements and climbing fast to the top 5, maybe even top 3 of best parks to date.  I started to go into a long explanation why this park ranks so highly, but I think for once in my life I'll shut my traphole and let the pictures speak for themselves.  :) 

There, was that good?  That was like three whole seconds of silence.  Might be a world record for me.

We woke up and drove South on the Ross Maxwell Drive with plans to hike several trails.  The first was....well, I can't tell you, but I'll explain in a minute.  The weather was perfect.  It was sunny but there were big puffy clouds skittering across the sky breaking up the sun's intense rays.  The desert scrubs were green and various plants and shrubs were in full bloom.  We parked at the trailhead, strapped on our packs, applied copious amounts of sunscreen, pulled on our giant sun hats, lengthened our trekking poles, and got to hikin'.

It was difficult to hike for any distance without stopping to take photos and look closely at all of the beautiful flower blooms.  As you can tell from the photos, I was pretty partial to the purple blooming plants.  We arrived at this trail junction...

....and I have cropped this photo so as not to reveal the sign for the secret, non-published trail that intersects here.  Why?  The park service doesn't want anyone to know about it (at least that's what we found out later from one of the Rangers) and I am all too happy to keep it secret in an effort to help preserve it.  If you want to know where it is, lace up your hiking boots and hit the trails - you'll find it eventually.  

On with the story...we hiked the [redacted] Trail and stopped at various points to admire the flora and fauna.

 

As we walked along, we suddenly stopped, cocked our heads, and listened intently.  We rounded a corner and then saw it in the distance...

A big smile erupted on my face.  We were amazed by the volume of water that we could both hear and see.  This is, after all, the desert.  None of our previous desert hiking has ever led to an oasis quite like this...

The wind created by the rushing waterfall blew a heavy mist and made the surrounding rocks wet and slick.  We removed our packs and started climbing about and scrambling over the rocks.  Bill pulled out the GoPro and took a pretty cool video.  I really want to upload it but don't have an extra 17 hours to wait for the transfer over our 1 bar LTE connection.  But, if I can ever find a way to load it quickly, I will put it here for all to enjoy.  :) 

We hung out a bit and as we explored the area, I happened to snap a photo of Bill after he put his hand near what appeared to be a type of fountain grass (notice I said "appeared") and quickly yelled "OWWW! Why does everything have to be so POKEY!?!".  I may have laughed at him.  Okay, fine.  I laughed at him. 

It's true.  Everything here is pokey.  Not a little bit either.  Things that don't even look like they'd be pokey are in fact pokey.  Like, jagged, serrated blade kind of pokey.  We wanted to just spend the rest of the day chillin' by the waterfall, but we had several other hikes we wanted to do and much left to see, so we begrudgingly picked up our packs and started making our way back.  We startled this little guy on the trail and he quickly slithered into the (look how pokey!) grass.

I stopped to take photos of all the flowers in bloom...

 ...and, as we arrived at the intersection of the trail, we continued our hike to our original destination, but after about 30 minutes of a steep, continuous, difficult climb on large loose rocks, we started scratching our heads thinking we somehow missed the intersection.

We backtracked a bit and then tried to locate the path of the trail above us.  The trail was indiscernible among the scrub, but the direction it was heading didn't jive with where we needed to be, which was way over here....

We looked at the topography and I tried to visualize the trail description in my head (why didn't I bring the book?!).  Not seeing how the trail would get us where we wanted to be, we turned around and headed back to the parking lot content and grateful to stumble across such an amazing place.  I snapped more photos - mostly of "pokey" things.

When we returned to the truck, we snacked and drank some cold water (for the record, the 64oz. double wall insulated Kleen Kanteen bottles keep water excessively cold for an excessively long time).  Mmmm....it is so refreshing to have cold water in the desert!  We discussed our next hikes and decided to do the rest of the RMS Drive and then do the remaining hikes on the way back.  The road is super cool....

and would be great on bikes...if there was no speed limit. We stopped at a few overlooks - the crowds were just awful....

I noticed a large gecko resting nearby.

I walked over to get a closer look.  Suddenly, he lunged at me and knocked me to the ground.  Before I knew it, he had me in his mighty jaws....

Having read that you should play dead if ever attacked by prehistoric era geckos, I held perfectly still and, with my heart racing and my breath coming in shallow gasps, waited till he lost interest and scurried away.  For some reason, the only thing going through my mind was that "15 minutes could save me 15% or more on my car insurance".  :D

Having lived through yet another terrifying experience, I got myself together and walked the rest of the way to the Santa Elena Canyon overlook.  It was a bit hazy and a little difficult to make out in the distance, but I could tell it was going to be quite the sight.

We continued the drive and took photos of the Canyon as we drew closer.

I snapped a photo of the Mule Ears Peaks in the distance....

 ....and then we got a few from the trailhead...

Again, the crowds were just ridiculous.  :)

I found some cactus blooming and walked around a bit to admire the landscape.

We climbed in the truck and journeyed on.

We stopped at Tuff Canyon and walked the short trail to the two overlooks.

Back in the truck, we continued South.

Due to major flooding, the road was closed just past the River Trail Access so we couldn't get close to Santa Elena Canyon, but we stopped to walk the River Trail.  It was nothing but muck and goop, and after sinking nearly ankle deep in the mud, I had to spend 15 minutes cleaning my boots off before getting back in the truck.

We made our way over to Castillon Visitor Center (which is closed during the off-season) and spent a fair amount of time walking around and looking at all of the exhibits.

Aside from a couple using the parking lot to unload their motorcycle for a ride, we were the only ones there so we had the whole place to ourselves - just the way I like it.  :)

Completing the drive took much longer than we anticipated so we decided to head back to the camper and make plans to finish the hikes still on our list another day.  When we returned, it was perfectly cool and comfortable and early enough to pull out the chairs and relax for awhile....or for someone to check his work emails in his underwear....some peoples' kids...

It was a really great day.  Our secret hike was fantastic and I am really looking forward to tomorrow.  We're going to celebrate our anniversary with a hike up Emory Peak.  Yay!!!