The trailhead is really poorly marked as you just get to this point where the road stops and there are some toilets. The same area is used as a put-in for river tours and a large troop of what I believe to be boyscouts who were rafting got there at the same time. At first I couldn't figure out if that was the trailhead or not so I drove back a bit to an overlook to see if it had more information about the trail. The map confirmed that the area I'd been to was the trailhead so I went back and followed the trail down to the river. After you come out of this shady forested area you get into floodplain which was dry but had flooded recently because there were still some small pools of water near the river. Everywhere else there was baked mud which was about 4 inches thick and looked like scales on the hide of an alligator. There was still no sign indicating this was a trail but I saw what looked like a trail in the embankment on the other side of the dry river bed so I followed that. Lucky me, that was the right way to go so I followed it up to the overlook. The canyon is quite pretty which stark headwalls on either side of the river and not much else. Once you get into the canyon on a boat you either come out on a boat or you have to climb. Because the area is quite wet compared to the surrounding desert the river bank was lush and had a variety of trees and plants. There were several footpaths that weren't marked at all and wound randomly through the trees so I followed some of these for a while. I kept trying to find a way to get down to the water but there really aren't many sand bars on the side of the river I was on so I gave up and headed back. The sun was trying to fight its way through the clouds so it gave everything this fluorescent glow. On the way back I stopped by the river again and picked up some of the excellent skipping rocks that get created when river rush madly over rocks. I had a good time tossing them into the river and got one to skip 24 times!
Mysteriously unmarked trail head
Once I got back in the car I headed back to a visitor's center I'd seen along the way to use the facilities. Since I was traveling in the 'low' season the visitor's center was closed but they had some neat old machines laying around so I grabbed some photos before heading out. The visitor's center doesn't open until November!
The drive back to camp was pretty long and I decided that I didn't want to camp there again as it wasn't a great place to have a 'base camp'. The road in is pretty steep and twisty so it takes a while to get there not to mention the great distances involved at 35 mph. I packed up the tent and went into the visitor's center to see if there were any souvenirs (none I wanted) and then stopped by the camp store to get some powerade and a Dr Pepper. By now I just wanted to go drop into the Rio Grande and then get on my way so I headed for the South Eastern section of the park where there is a campground that abuts the river. This drive was across true desert...nothing but cactus and flat land as far as the eye could see and the temperature was 112 according to the car. At least the roads were a little twisty and fun to drive because otherwise it would have been pretty boring. Turns out the visitor center at this section of the park was closed too so I dropped into the campstore for souvenirs (score) and to try and find out if there was anywhere I could get into the river. The guy at the store assured me I could get in and showed me where and then recommended a 3/4 mile nature loop trail so I headed off the the spot where I could get into the river. Well, I don't know what that guy was talking about because the spot he told me to go to was right by the river but unless you just wanted to jump in (I did not, it looked gross) there was no way to get in. I backtracked and tried a few trail that were cut into the bamboo growing by the river but couldn't find any way in that didn't lead into dense vegetation that I was unwilling to test. It wasn't worth getting bitten by a snake or whatever else was living in that jungle. I got back in the car and decided to try the area that was marked as a boat ramp. When I got there I decided I could probably just get my feet wet and be okay so I setup the camera and got a picture with my foot in the river. Man it was gross; the water is a weird green color and the mud at the bank stunk of manure and had the consistency of quicksand so it sucked my foot in.
After that pleasant experience I washed my foot off as best I could and drove to the nature trail. I figured it wasn't very far so I put on a shirt and my flip flops and grabbed my camera and the trail guide they had. Right off the bat I could tell that hardly anyone had visited the trail in a while. Mesquite trees branches had grown into the middle of the trail so I had to pick through those to get to a boardwalk over a beaver pond. The pond itself was okay to look at but was the same green color as the river and looked otherwise unhealthy. On the other side of the pond was another mesquite infested walkway and then you get into open desert. I followed the trail and read through the guide but I guess I missed one of the numbered signs and ended up at a sign that had directions for a spur trail and the normal trail. Well, I had no idea what the spur trail was so I took the normal trail which starts climbing up a hill and didn't seem like it was going to lead back to the trail head. I hiked up to the top where I found some additional numbered signs (much higher than where I had started as they were numbered 12/13 instead of 5 which was the next one I expected to find). The view from the top was pretty neat as you could see pretty far into the park and then across the border into Mexico. I didn't see anyone trying to sneak across but then again I wouldn't try it in 112 degree weather either. While I was up there I read back into the guide to see if I had missed #5 and sure enough I had and it gave directions to follow the spur trail so I headed back down to the trail and followed it. There were some interesting metastes (holes in the rock) that had been used by natives to grind corn and other objects. I would have thought they were just holes caused by water pooling on top. As I followed this spur trail it became harder to follow and started going through sand. Now remember that it's 112 and I don't have any water and the sun is beating down and I'm wearing flip flops and the sand is hot as hell. I think I spent about 2 minutes trying to follow the trail before deciding it wasn't worth it and that if I didn't get back I was probably going to internally boil like a lobster so I high-tailed it back to the car and cussed out the people who were in charge of marking and maintaining trails in Big Bend. I've never seen so many poorly marked trails at a park before. Maybe it was because this was the low season. In case you can't tell I was pretty bent out of shape by then so I decided to just leave the park and head up to Guadalupe Mountains National Park via the west exit of Big Bend which was supposed to go through Terlingua ghost town.
Well, the ghost town is sort of a ghost town and a living town as people have built shops and houses among the ruins to serve as tourist attractions. There is a cemetery that is unremarkable except that it is on the national register of historic places.
I drove through a bunch of small towns in BFE West Texas before getting to Alpine. Back in Hutto Wade had given me a bunch of his frozen meat and I was trying to keep it frozen with dry ice and had run out. I figured the local supermarket would have it but no luck there or the Wal-Mart. I did get some sunburn lotion as I had gotten crispier than intended while I was walking around shirtless. The next large town wasn't that far west so I figured I'd try Marfa and see if they had anything. About 18 miles out of Alpine the engine abruptly shut off and the 'check engine' light came on and this annoying symbol popped up on the top of the display in the car that looked like a warning light but didn't explain what the problem was. I assumed the car had gotten too hot (it was 112 and I had the A/C on max after all) so I let it cool down for a minute and then started it up. It came on but the check engine light stayed on so I drove down the road a little more slowly and figured I'd just take it easy until I got to Marfa. Once again the engine died on me so I let the car coast a bit and tried to nurse the battery to see how far it would get me. Thankfully the road in was mostly downhill but eventually I got to a hill and ran out of juice so I stopped the car again and this time checked under the hood. Turns out I ran out of coolant! Unlike most cars there isn't any oil pressure or temperature gauge on the Prius so I assumed that it would pop up a warning message or something if they ran low or there was an issue with it but I guess not. I could've believe a car that was smart enough to manage the motor and battery would fail to have at least some means of alerting you to a potential problem. Furthermore the manual says NOT to use plain water so I was kind of screwed since I didn't happen to be carrying any spare coolant. I am at least partly to blame as I never checked though in my defense I've never had a problem like that with a car nor have I ever had a car that lacked a temperature gauge. Of course the coolant reservoir only takes maybe a quart or two of fluid so it doesn't take much to go through it. I didn't really want to walk the remaining 4 miles so I let the car cool for a while and then decided to try driving again but take it really slow and not use the a/c or radio to conserve battery power. I nervously watched the miles count down on the gps but managed to make my way into the first gas station which miraculously had the proper 'premium pre-mixed' coolant that the owner's manual wanted. Of course it's not Toyota's brand but oh well. In fact, the manual wants you to call Toyota for everything whether it's the check engine light coming on or you need a tow into somewhere. Ridiculous.
Outside of Marfa there was this random 'Prada' store that apparently is some community art project. The juxtaposition of this fancy store with the open farm land and windmills in it was quite striking.
Thankfully the rest of the journey to Guadaulpe Mountains was without incident on the car's part though I did get rained on. The clouds were just amazing after the rain and I wasn't really paying that much attention to the road as I drove through :)
The Guadalupe Mountains rise out of the middle of the desert creating a strange oasis and are actually part of an enormous fossilized reef which was several times bigger than any reef we have today. As I got there a high desert thunderstorm was rolling in and created a really neat display of lightning. I made it to the Visitor center while it was still light out but they were closed so I walked around reading the various placards and ran into an older couple. They had been to a lot of parks and had lived in Provo for 2 years in the late 70's and the woman was talking to me about an interested set of novels written by a former Park Ranger that gave some interesting insight into the various parks the novels were set in. In fact, they had learned about this park through one of the novels. I'm going to try and see if the library across the street has any of these and see what they are all about. The lady told me she had been to 38 national parks though I think she's counting national monuments too as they are all run by the park service. If we do that, then I've been to at least as many as she has :) I'm pretty proud to say I've been to so many of the parks at what I consider to be a young age. I think more young people in this country ought to take advantage of them while they don't have families as you get an entirely different kind of experience (much cheaper).
I camped out that night with the storm all around me. I tried to take some pictures but to be honest the S5 is crap in the dark. Every time I take a long exposure I get a lot of noise in the image even if I set the ISO way down. Oh well. I had a really rough time sleeping because the wind was whipping around and the walls of the tent kept popping me on the head or feet or body. I must have awoken 10 times during the night. Note to self, make sure that you fit comfortably inside of a tent before you decide to use it :)
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