Comprising a Life | The Bonsai, Travels and Haiku of Vaughn Banting

Big Bend National Park

Years ago when I was a lot healthier than I am today, I used to enjoy backpacking to national wilderness areas with like-minded friends. One such trip took me to Big Bend National Park (which I had visited many times in the past) located at the major bend of the Rio Grande in south Texas that separates Texas from Mexico. < http://www.nps.gov/bibe/bccamps/chisos/chisoscamps.htm >

This is a wonderful and very little traveled National Park. Its significant topography includes the Chisos mountain range whose southern border is formed by the Rio Grande. Like an island in a desert sea this little-known mountain group is composed of uplifted granite and slopes down onto a moonscape composed of piles of volcanic ash on its Southwestern corner. Other places in the park have exhibits of dinosaur skeletons left as they were found and now under protective structures.

Our group consisted of Ann Henderson, Michael Levy, Annie Coco, my sister Ivy Schlegel and myself.

We shipped our backpacks empty of their contents so their frames would not be bent in transit and flew to Midland Texas. There we rented a big station wagon for us and all of our gear and drove down into the park. Once we were there we abandoned our car in the middle of the desert and began a slow ascent of the south wall.

We knew where to look for the natural springs along the path and although we feared some of them might be dry, we found them all running and so ended up carrying more water than we really needed.

I think the following photographs will document the trip well enough from here on.

Bad exposure

Not much better, even useing Adobe to brighten

Just starting down the trail

Early part of trip

Some of the backpacks were pretty big

From the trail

A good example of a Dyke

The South rim against a purple sky

Break time

Pitching our tents on the trail to avoid the cactus

Lunch

Measuring with my palm, Cougar tracks at dawn. We had a drizzle one night and apparently we had a visitor during that time . We awoke in the morning to fresh Cougar tracks.

Ivy with pack

Ivy looking towards what we must climb up

Getting closer to the top of the rim

Sun and clouds on the rim

Ann Henderson behind the camera

The gap we came through

The boot

Looking down on from where we came

View into Mexico

Posing at the top of the South Rim

Trees growing on the rim looking like they were just up-lifted yesterday

Sharing our supper with two fellow hikers we met on the rim

Sundown from the South Rim

A Century plant growing under an old Pinyon pine

Dead Pinyon pine

A windswept Pinyon pine

Annie, myself, Ivy and Mike

Coming back down passing camel rock

Returning

The rim now only a distant memory

Time to see the sights

After finding our car again in the desert we drove back into the park for some more leisurely exploration. First we took the car and drove back up into the mountains as high as we could go then took a trail leading to the highest peak. This time just with day packs. After that excursion we took saddle horses to the source of a waterfall.

We then went exploring the desert and eventually the Rio Grande which we crossed on burros and one Don Quixote-like horse. On the other side there was a small town built up strictly from the illegal border crossing. We all felt like we were in a spaghetti Western as we entered the only bar and ordered cold beer all around.