I woke up right at sunrise and had a beautiful view of the beginning of our day.
We decided to try one last hike for the day, this one went up a hill, then back down the other side, with a path along the river. We did the up and down part and were dying, it was so freaking hot. In hindsight, the part along the river would have been flat, possibly shady, but we were both pretty beat. As soon as we got to the water we turned around.
We decided to hike one of the more popular trails in the park, Lost Mine Trail. We were lucky to get the last open spot in the parking area, but since we had kind of a late start there were lots of people on their way back down.
During the hike we saw a mule deer and this cool Mexican Jay.
The trail was 5 miles total, out and back, and about half the time was in the shade. Uphill the whole way, which meant we had some awesome views at the peak.
At the top we met a lady who said she was hiking Big Bend for her 70th birthday, and her birthday wish was that everyone she met in the park will still be hiking when they are 70. I'm going to give it my best shot.
We stopped for lunch on the way back down, found a perfect shady spot with an excellent breeze and ate shelf stable tamales, which are surprisingly good.
After the hike we drove further into the Chisos Basin. We plan on being back to this area to hike in a few days. The Chisos mountains are awesome.
Our camp spot for the night was at the far east side of the park, so we started heading that direction. There are a ton of pull offs with information signs, and I got Joe to stop at as many as I could.
The hike this morning had trees and shade from the mountain, but this area of the park is flat and zero shade. We stopped and did a neat nature walk through an area called Dugout Wells, which had a spring and at one time a church, homes, and a windmill to pump up water. Most of that is gone now, but the windmill was still there doing it's thing. Nice little nature trail with lots of desert facts. Over 60 types of cactus found in the park.
We finally made it all the way to the Rio Grande, and we stopped at an overlook to check out out from above. On the road there, we saw a group of donkeys, all with bells on their necks.
Mexico is literally RIGHT THERE across the river, and at the top of the overlook were handmade items for sale made by locals (scorpions made of beads, pottery), just leave your money in the can. We may or may not have seen someone wave at us from the US side and then ride his horse across the river.
We stopped at the camp store to grab a much needed shower. $2 gets you five minutes of water, and I was so lost in thought on how I was going to utilize those five minutes as efficiently as possible, I forgot to take a towel. Damn it.
Our campsite was in a campground this timel, I picked it because it was close to the bathrooms. Pretty lively place, lots of families with kids.
We played some games, had a quick dinner, and listened to frogs/toads from the river. I assumed that being around the lights from the campers would have impacted the star viewing for the night, but they were no match to Big Bend's dark skies.
We were both beat from a day of hiking and heat, and were in bed by 9. I slept for a solid 9 hours without waking up once.
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