Nine Nights at Big Bend - Take 2

February 11, 2019

It was a breezy cloudy morning at Big Bend National Park, so we wore long sleeves and pants to hike the Grapevine Hills Trail. The trailhead is accessed by driving 6 miles down a rocky one-lane road across the desert. The Mini prevailed o’er rocks and dips. The hike is only 2.2 miles round trip, easy walking on a wide, sandy, flat wash running between walls of sculpted rock with smooth rounded rocks scattered on either side of the trail amongst the yuccas and creosote. Those granite-like boulders reminded us of the rock formations at Joshua Tree National Park in CA. At the last 1/4 mile of the Grapevine Trail, the sand ended, and the trail climbed up over rocks – big rocks and boulders.  That part was a bit challenging as it required rock scrambling at times, kind of crawling on all fours, over the pile of rocks that led up to the trail’s climax – a large boulder mysteriously balanced between two big upright rocks, a remnant of the workings of erosion.

A short distance from the campground entrance road, part way around the back side of Casa Grande mountain, is the Lost Mine trailhead. Our day for hiking that trail started out cool, 55ish, but sunny and sky-blue, a close to perfect day weather-wise. Lost Mine is a nicely maintained, very popular 4.8-mile round trip trail with many board-supported steps to help climb the continuous incline, switchback after switchback to the top of Lost Mine Mountain.  The panoramic views from the trail as we hiked along were spectacular.  At one point, we looked down -way down- on our Chisos Basin campground. The trail’s endpoint (technically not a summit because we were on a high ridge on the north side of Casa Grande mountain) at 6,850 feet elevation, felt like a summit. The rocky slab ridge- top gave us a top-of-the-world view of Pine and Juniper Canyons. We found a place to sit down to eat our apple slices and roasted peanuts before making our descent.

Accessed across from campsite #18 at Rio Grande Village Campground, the Rio Grande Village Nature Trail is one we do every year we’re at Big Bend. Why? I love the views of the Rio Grande River from the limestone hill that juts above the river. I love seeing the brightly painted houses in the Mexican town of Boquillas on the opposite side of the river, and I love waving to the senor who is sitting across the river working on his beaded scorpions and roadrunners and carved walking sticks that he will place on “our side" (during the night?) for us to look at and purchase if we like. We usually pick out one or two of the items that are laid out on the sand near the river, put our money in the box, and wave to the craftsman. He smiles and waves back.

If it's beautiful views of the Rio Grande you're looking for, hike the first part of the Daniels Ranch to Hot Springs Trail.  The whole trail from Daniels Ranch near Rio Grande Village to the 105-degree spring is a 6-mile round trip excursion, and we didn't do that.  However, the first part of the very narrow trail winds steeply up the side of a limestone cliff a half mile or so to a most amazing viewpoint.  The river is narrow here and as you stand clifftop looking across to the clifftop in Mexico, you marvel once again at the inanity of wall building.