On top of the world

...or at least pretty close!

The first weekend in March, my parents, Josh and I headed to Big Bend National Park. We left Friday afternoon and made a stop in Ft. Stockton. We had mexican food (because that's all there is) for dinner and headed to Josh's parents house to go to bed.

We got up bright and early Saturday morning, ate breakfast, and headed out because we still had a two hour or so drive to get to the park. It felt so good to be in the cool, crisp, non humid air!! We knew it was going to be the perfect day for a hike. We got to the park, parked at The Lodge where we were staying that night and got everything ready to start our hike. We had decided on the way down that we would do the 9 mile hike to Emory Peak, the highest peak in the park and the second highest peak in Texas. It didn't sound too rough, and had the best view in the park. So, we head out about 10:30 thinking it would only take us about 4-5 hours to do the whole thing, especially after we had talked to a few people about it. Ha. Ha. Ha. The joke was one us. And the map we got was crappy!

We started out well enough. We were all breathing pretty hard, but once we got into a rhythm, it wasn't too bad. Until we hit the switchbacks. All 500 million of them!

This is "The Window." This was near the beginning of the hike. We could have hiked to it and been done in about 2 hours, but we thought that was for wusses. Yeah, we should have done that one because that is what we were!!

Then we came across these Claret Cup Cactus in a flat open field. How bad can it be when you have scenery like this to look at?!

(This is my absolute favorite picture from the whole trip! )

Just look at that! All that color in the middle of dull brown grass! This was the one and only one that we saw!

For some reason this is the peak we thought we were hiking to- we were very very wrong! That sucker would have been a piece a cake and much much closer that where we were going!

From looking at the map (my dad and I love maps and have a pretty good handle on reading them) it looked like we were at a particular point that wasn't too far from where we were heading. We were looking for a hard right to take while the trail we were on continued. Well, we told my mom this and every hard right we took, she asked if this was the one! Ha! We all wished it had been!

So, as we are climbing up half of the 500 million switchbacks, we pass a park ranger hanging out, making sure people are staying on the trail. We stopped a couple of times to get water or a snack and he always ended up catching up to us and stopping to chat. At one point, when were absolutely certain that we were near the 'hard right,' we stopped to take a break and our new friend stopped too. We told him where we were heading, and he told us that we still had another hour (!!) to make it to the hard right, and then we still had another mile to go from there. I should note that I am a wuss and my hips were hurting very badly at this point. Long story short, I think they are out of alignment (or something like that) and cause me a lot of pain sometimes. I really didn't know how I was going to make it. But I had said I wanted to do this, so I was going to finish it!

I should stop here to mention that we were covering about 3,000 feet of elevation change on this hike. The last mile alone covered 1,000 feet of elevation change. The last 50' feet or so was a sheer cliff!

Finally we made it the 'hard right!' You have no idea how happy we were to see it!! We stopped for lunch at the green bear box above. There are bears and mountain lions in the park, and every so often on the trail, there is a sign reminding you of this little fact!

And finally we made it to the top! This is the view from the top of Emory Peak. That last mile was hell!! At least for me and my hips. We passed a few people on their way down. The first guy told us it would be another 20 minutes. The next guy we saw said it would be another 45! It took all we had to make it, and in the end, it was so worth it!!


Another view. It was very dusty that day, so we couldn't see too much of the horizon.

The very top of the peak

If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you can see some orange roofs in the valley- that's The Lodge where we stayed Saturday night.

I think this view might be looking toward Mexico

At the top. I wore that orange visor in case something happened- they would be able to find me. I am not joking.

This is Emory Peak after we got down the trail a little way. It doesn't look too menacing from here!

When we got back to The Lodge, the hike had taken us 7 hours total. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get down. And we were so happy to see the truck in the parking lot! It was sad how sore we were that evening. I could barely walk! I looked like a little old lady!

Sunday morning we got up before the sun was up and drove down to the Rio Grande where there is a natural hot spring that is 105 degrees!! Oh my gosh, it felt amazing! Especially on our sore joints and muscles from the hike. The smooth, glassy water is the hot spring with the river in the background.

That is Mexico (duh)

Another view of Mexico

Sitting in the hot spring

I went a little further down the river to get a shot of the springs which are on the right.

After the springs (which we didn't want to leave), we headed back to The Lodge to pack up and head out. We exited the park on the Terlingua side and drove up to Alpine to get lunch before heading to Marfa. We stopped just outside of Marfa and the Luz de Estrella winery. We did a little wine tasting there and also met some people who live in Schulenburg, but who my parents didn't know. It's a small world! We went into Marfa and stopped at the Marfa bookstore for my dad so he could look around. Then we headed out to Ft. Davis and Indian Lodge. We checked in at the lodge, and headed up the hill for some beverage consumption and snacking.

This is Indian Lodge at Ft. Davis

I took way too many pictures of these blooming yuccas

Monday morning we got up and hiked to the top of this thing. It was nowhere near as bad as the hike to Emory Peak.

Indian Lodge from the previous peak

Davis Mountains

Another shot.

We got back down to the lodge, loaded up, and headed back to Ft. Stockton to eat lunch, and head back to the city. It was a busy, tiring weekend, but so much fun! I think it took me the whole rest of the week for my body to recover!

Our next trip: Guadalupe Peak- the highest in Texas. Should be interesting!