Big Bend Trip Report: Home Page

Chisos Mountains Basin Drive
Oak Springs
Dike along Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive
Sunset along Old Maverick Road
Dinner at the restaurant next to the inn (a must read)
Interactive Map

Chisos Mountains Basin Drive
Our tired bones made it an easy decision to sleep in for the second morning and enjoy a hearty breakfast at the restaurant next to the inn. Again, it was difficult to see the dawn of Big Bend from the inside of the restaurant. But, the view wouldn't have been as pleasant in the 30 degree weather along with a steady north wind. Since this was our last day we decided to take a final drive to the Chisos Mountains Basin stopping along the way at a few overlooks. It was refreshing to breath the mountain air and just enjoy the Chisos. I believe this was the day that we saw one of the Peregrine Falcons on the main road before turning off to go to the Basin. Obviously those guys are not restricted to the South Rim.

Oak Springs / westside of the Window (Hike: 2.5 miles)
We saved one more new location to explore for the last full day in the park. This first section of the hike goes along a maintenance road to the water pump station that serves the Basin. Along the way is Oak Spring, which is marked by a bended oak tree whose branches were growing upward. The story goes that years ago the oak tree was bent down to mark the location of the spring. Once the trail leaves the road it gains altitude and forms a split as you approach the western slope of the Chisos Mountains. The options are to either hike up and around the Window to join the trail that comes from the Basin or to hike down a wash that ends up at the Window pouroff. We opted to go to the pouroff; however, the hike down the steep slope was made difficult by the thin flagstone type rocks all along the scattered trail. Once in the wash the trail meandered around large boulders and ended at the foot of the pouroff. The view from there is basically straight up to the Window. It was really neat to be standing at the foot of the Window after viewing it from the Basin over the course of several years. The rocks along the southern face were a bluish color and extremely jarred. We decided to take a detour on the way back and chose not to go up the sleep slope, but to hike down the wash to the pump station and then follow the road back to the trail head. Although this route avoided the steep slope and ended up being shorter, we had to traverse several series of boulders, which jarred my knees and lower back. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but I'd probably opt to stick to the trail if faced with the same situation.

Dike along Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive
There is an exhibit at about the 5 mile marker on the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. I had been bugging Joey off and on throughout the trip to photograph some of the dikes along this drive. I wanted to try and photograph the dike in the foreground with the Chisos Mountains in the background. We both jumped into a nearby wash and headed in different directions - my sites were set on the dike and Joey followed the wash to the south. This was another opportunity to blaze an uncharted trail in the open desert. I found that distances are more difficult to gauge than you realize. From the truck the dikes seemed to be about 100 yards from the road, but once in the desert I ended up having to find my way up and down several washes that weren't visible from the truck. This made the hike out about twice what I thought it was. I set up a cairn in one of the washes as a marker for the return trip. I was glad of the cooler temperature, which kept me from getting too concerned about rattle snakes. We both enjoyed trekking through the desert, which I believe opened up a whole new arena of Big Bend Hikes (that freedom thing again)..

Old Maverick Road
I began counting down the number of hours we had left of Big Bend light. I'm sure Joey got tired of hearing it. Every thirty minutes or so I would yell out saying "Two more hours of Big Bend light!" The Old Maverick Road is a great place to see the western view of the Chisos without all the traffice of the Ross Maxwell. The road is a little rough, but most vehicles can make the drive. We stopped at the Chimneys campsite and trail head and photographed bluebonnets with the Chisos in the background. Joey found an old dilapidated rusted out truck. There were some areas where the ocotillos were beginning to bloom, but we were still really a week or two too early for the peak blooms. We found a spot towards the end of the Old Maverick Road to photograph the sunset, which wasn't too far from the western park entrance. A wrecker drove by and ended up towing a car that we had noticed a mile or so down the road. We figured they were out exploring, but I guess they had broken down. It was another peaceful sunset in Big Bend. There weren't any clouds over the Chisos, and the mountains slowly faded from light purple into dusk. As is in most cases, the experience was better than the photographs. We said goodbye to the last of the Big Bend light (or so we thought).

Dinner at the Restaurant Next to the Inn
We were basically "Big Bend Out" or "Photographed Out" or just plain o'l "Worn Out" from too much of a good thing. The restaurant was empty that night as most of the tourist left on Thursday and I guessed that a new group would pull in on Friday. For some odd reason we decided to not sit in the same seating section that we had for the past seven days. New section, new waitress. She asked what all we had been up to and we recited the days events. Then she asked if we had been down Indian Head Road. We had never heard of it - was it in the park? She said the road was right next to the western end of the motel - I mean right next to the motel! The waitress described an array of Indian petroglyphs along a short hike from the end of the road just within the park boundaries. We took a deep breath, gathered our weary thoughts, and decided we wouldn't be leaving before dawn after all. It appeared that we hadn't seen the last of the Big Bend light. The waitress received a handsome tip.

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Day Seven