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As we headed south towards the Mexican border,
our surroundings were definitely getting more arid. Miles of
deserted scrub was livened up by the occasional roadrunner. Now
and again a road kill skunk added to the ambiance.
We made a stop at the border town of Del Rio to stock up on provisions
before heading west until we reached Seminole Canyon State Park.
Route 90 had taken us away from the Rio
Grande and the border for a while but constant Homeland Security patrols and
checkpoints were a reminder that it wasn't far away.
By the time we reached the Seminole Canyon Park, we were right back in
border territory again.
The park was famous for its pictographs or
cave pictures, painted by the canyon's early indigenous
inhabitants. We showed up for the three o'clock
guided tour to find we had the guide all to ourselves, which made it a very
informative experience.
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Beep, beep! (Roadrunner)
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Sherry walked us down in to the canyon
explaining the ancient populations uses for all the local vegetation, what
there was of it in the harsh, dry conditions. One plant
made acted like soap and was used to bind oil paint pigments
together. The sharp pointed tips of the leaves of another and
its fibrous leaves made ready threaded needles. As
we approached the cave dwellings containing the paintings, we were told how
the relatively recent damming of the Rio Grande had raised local humidity
greatly, causing the paintings to deteriorate rapidly.
Scientists were still trying to find a way to preserve them.
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Pictographs in the present
day......
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.....and how they appeared in the 1930s,
before the dam.
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The tribe had used the large caves in the side
of the canyon as temporary shelters. We were shown mounds
in the cave, which were a series of abandoned baking
ovens. At one point our guide picked up mysterious
looking brown object and handed it to Phil, asking what he thought it
was. Turned out it was ancient caveperson poo!
"Would you like to hold it too, Christine?" Sherry
asked. "Er, no thanks...." came the reply.
What became of the tribe was a mystery.
Early next morning we decided to take the six
mile round-trip trail down to the Rio Grande, before it got too
hot. It was quite surreal plodding through the
desert, alone. We stood for a while looking at Mexico
before heading back to Harvey and hitting the road west.
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At least somebody in the
campground had a smaller home than us!
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Phil with Mexico behind
him. Hold on to that hat, I'm not going over there to get
it back!
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About 130 miles lay between us and Marathon,
where we planned to stop for the night. No worries,
we'd filled up in Del Rio about 65 miles earlier and there were four towns
marked on our map between our location and Marathon.
We glibly drove past the first town, thinking we'd stop at the
next. It turned out the next town either didn't exist or
was nowhere near the road. Unperturbed we pressed on,
didn't really have a choice. The next town was bound
to have a gas station, after all lots of big trucks kept passing us.....
The next town turned out to be a ghost town,
with only empty, derelict buildings marking its
location. By now we were beginning to
panic. Harvey's tank is small, luckily it turned out to be
just big enough. We filled up, wiped the sweat off
our brows and checked into our campground in Marathon.
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We decided to see the sights of the
town. It didn't take long, the population was only around
400. It did boast an historic and attractive hotel in the
centre. After this we checked out the Post Office (well as
they had one, we just had to mail something). We then
spotted the sign to the Museum and Library and eagerly set off in their
direction. Turned out the Museum was closed but the ladies
in the library kept us entertained for quite a while with local
tales.
We were bound for the Big Bend National Park
the next day. This park was nestled in a remote
corner (literally a corner) of Texas, a modest 70 mile drive from Marathon
to the visitor centre.
The 70 miles took us through more empty but
stunningly beautiful desert.
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Uh-oh.
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Harvey looking small and
alone, very alone.
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We drove up to the Chisos Basin Campground to
the spot we'd reserved. It was hard to judge on the
internet which site to pick. Our random pick turned out to be one of
the more level sites, needing only a couple of our leveling blocks to
straighten us up. It also turned out that we had our own
huge rock, which we christened the star-gazing rock and put to just that
use. Way out in the desert, far from any sizeable
population meant little light pollution and great star-gazing, reminding us
of the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!
The Chisos Basin was actually a basin
surrounded by high mountains. This turned out to be
fortuitous. The weather forecast for Sunday was for 70 mph
winds, with gusts up to 90. We were nervous and decided to
hike on Friday and Saturday, so we could stay near Harvey on
Sunday. As it happened the Basin gave great
protection from the wind. We later learned that outside
the basin area, the high winds caused major dust storms whilst we'd been
snuggly settled in our campsite.
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We took advantage of the calmer days to hike,
firstly up to the visitor centre and ice-cream shop, which was a major
uphill hike in itself. From there we took the Basin Loop
trail which gave wonderful views around the basin and through a gap between
the hills out over the desert. Our second hike took us
down the canyon bed to get up close and personal with the gap.
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The window looking from up
the mountain and close up.
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We left the Big Bend N.P. from its western
end, meaning only a 78 mile drive to the next town. We
were sure to fill our tank first, just in case.
Passing through the town of Alpine, collecting provisions on the way before
pushing on to the Davis Mountains State Park.
By the time we reached the park's neighbouring town of Fort Davis, we needed
more gas. The first gas station was closed,
permanently. The second gas station was closed because the
operator was sick. Fortunately we found a third hidden alongside
a supermarket. It was then that we discovered our
gas cap was back in the second gas station and had to go back for
it. Finally we were ready to fill up but struggled
to get the pump to work. Finally the manager came outside
and fixed it for us. Fuel was becoming traumatic for
Harvey.
We'd picked the Davis Mountains State Park
for its proximity to the McDonald Observatory, which we planned to visit the
next day. Here in a sparsely populated campground we were
again allocated the worst campsite in the place by the campground office
staff. With dozens to choose from, we were baffled as to
why we'd been given this ugly, bare site, where the services were so far
away that our hose and cable wouldn't reach. Was it
us? We headed back to the office where we were allocated
number 29 instead, which was a lovely spot.
It turned out the park had its own special
residents, the rare Montezuma Quail. After taking a hike
up the mountain to enjoy the view, we returned at the appointed time, when
the birds were alleged to visit the bird watching station, to enjoy the seed
there. We waited and waited, with a couple of more
serious twitchers, sitting motionless, for fear of spooking the
birds. Christine was the first to fold, heading back to
Harvey and a more comfortable seat. Phil finally did see a
couple of the birds in the far distance but headed home to light the fire
for our dinner.
Whilst cooking we had visitors, first a deer
which just hung around for a long time hoping for a
handout. It was disappointed. Next
we spotted a Javelina, a type of wild pig. It boldly came right
into our campsite and stole a waste broccoli stump, left over from preparing
dinner. (No Mr Ranger Sir we didn't feed the wildlife, it was a
case of grand theft broccoli!) Obviously very short-sighted, it
tracked down it's illicit treat purely by smell and then spent a long time
going round and round our site, hoping to find something else
tasty. After licking the grill in the fire pit clean, it
headed out, looking quite pleased with itself. We were glad we'd
already eaten!
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Walking in the Davis
Mountains
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The phantom broccoli thief.
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Next morning Harvey crawled up the mountain to
the McDonald Observatory. Here we indulged in a spot
of live solar viewing, which was fascinating. Our guide
gave just the right mix of information and entertainment and we learned a
lot about our big star. We were then taken on a
tour. First we visited the massive Harlan J. Smith
telescope in it's chilly dome. The temperature inside the
dome was kept a nighttime outside temperatures, presumably to stop the
telescope from misting up. Fortunately the astronomers had
a "warm room" in which to work. We got to
move the giant telescope and rotate the dome in which it lives for
ourselves.
Next stop on the tour was the Hobby-Eberly
research telescope. It was fascinating to learn how the
telescopes' mirrors were cleaned and even recoated on site with new
reflective materials. It was a pity we weren't there for one of the
Observatory's famous evening star parties but there was only so much science
we could take in one day!
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View from McDonald
Observatory
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Harlan J. Smith telescope -
can I drive???
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Space Age Style home of the
Hobby-Eberly Telescope
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We headed north from the Observatory, our drive
including the empty 55 mile stretch of route 54, to the Guadalupe Mountains
National Park. Here we spent the night in a
campground which was basically a car park but at only $8 for the night, who
was complaining. The wind, however, whistled down
the canyon all night, giving us a noisy and restless
night.
We'd changed time zones during our drive the
previous day and our bodies weren't adjusted, so we set off on our hike into
the Canyon at 8 am. We'd finished the four mile round trip
by 9.20 and were back on the road and headed for New Mexico.
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Phil heads up the canyon
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