Sunday, February 22, 2009

Big Bend National Park Trip Feb 2009 Day 2

Day 2 we woke up to a very cloudy, windy and cold day. We changed our plans and decided to take the Lost Mines trail in the morning.

The start of the Lost Mines Trail doesn't look to bad, but just around the bend the pavement ends and it turns into loose rock. The trail is ALL uphill until you get to the top. Most of it is a gradual uphill, but some is very steep. We hiked over 5 miles and climbed about 1000 feet.

This picture was taken at about the halfway point. It was much colder, cloudier, and more windy at this point on the climb.

I'm sitting on a single large rock that is like an outcropping. I had to climb out there. I couldn't even see a foot off the rock, but I know it was a sheer drop. In the afternoon we hiked a trail called the Chimneys trail that was about 5 miles round trip. The trail is in the desert portion of the park and is relatively flat. It took us out to some rock outcroppings that were supposed to look like chimneys and had been used in the past by Indians. While there we saw Indian pictographs and grinding stones.


This picture was taken at the end of our last trail of the day, the Burro Mesa Pouroff. Apparently when there is water, it pours off of this cliff. I scaled the wall first and looked into that "cave" at the top. Then James climbed it as well. This trail was about a mile, but we veered off of it and probably ended up walking about 2 miles.




On our way back to the lodge we saw this pack of javelinas on the side of the road.



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