Day 2: Big Bend National Park
Bright and early Wednesday morning I packed up to go down to
Big Bend. Actually, that’s only half true. It was early, but it certainly was
not bright. I don’t think the sun had even begun to peek out yet. Now, while
this may seem miserable to some of you, in truth, it provided for quite a nice
drive. There was a very nice sunrise over the desert plains and far off mountains
and since I was in the middle of nowhere, I had the views almost
entirely to myself. Now, when I say I had the views almost entirely to myself,
that actually may be an understatement. By the time I got on US-385, which goes
in to the park, I was just surrounded by open desert. There was nobody. Else.
There. It was extremely eerie to drive through a place with so little evidence
of human contact. It felt like a zombie movie. Except there wasn’t even a place
where zombies could pop out from. So maybe it was more like Cast Away but in a
desert. I didn’t start talking to a volleyball so clearly it wasn’t that big of
an issue. Seeing this was a relief:
via GIPHY
A few more miles down the road was the ranger station where
they check you in. Nobody home. The sign on the door said to check in at the
visitor center. I parked at the visitor center about a hundred or so yards up
the road and went to go inside. Nope. Nothing. Remember that zombie movie
feeling? Yeah, me too. Ok, well, back in the car I go. After 35 miles and the
passing of a grand total of 3 vehicles driven by unverified, but assumed,
real-life human beings (at this time I think we can assume the undead do not
possess the complex motor skills to drive an automobile) I arrived in the Chisos
Basin. Human contact was established.
Next up: set up a campsite. Now, by all accounts I am a
novice camper. The last time I went camping, I was on a hiking trip in summer
camp. We all decided to hike twice as far after our first night out just so we
wouldn’t have to camp out again. I was about 11 years old. So… yeah, its been a
while. Needless to say, this time I was prepared and I had felt accomplished
when I had this hammock site all set up:
 |
| How we hardly knew ye |
Perfect? Not by a long shot, but if nothing else, it was functional.
Or it would have been. Because not 10 seconds after finishing up I was told by
the park volunteers that I wasn’t allowed to hang anything from trees. My face:
via GIPHY
Whatever, gotta adapt. I took everything down and moved to a
different site with a metal structure on it and set up there. It wasn’t half
bad:
But I came to Big Bend for two reasons: to play out the plot of
a zombie movie in my head and to hike. And I already had my fill of introspective
movie-making, so time to hike it was. Destination: the Lost Mine Trail. I
cannot recommend this enough. The trail is around 5 miles round trip so it’s
not that hard. But the views. Holy shit the views:
This is the first national park I’ve been to and from what I’ve
been told it is the least visited. That’s understandable given how far away
from everything it is but I highly recommend going down there if you ever get
the chance.
Next stop: Mesa, AZ