This was the hike we took on our last day in the park. The rangers warn that it's a long, hot walk, and the one that they need to rescue people from most often - when people hike it on a hot, sunny afternoon, and don't bring along enough water. So we decided to start early in the morning, to be safe.
We spent one day driving from one end of Big Bend to the other, and taking a few short hikes. It's such a huge park - to drive from our campground at the east end, to Santa Elena Canyon at the west end is about 65 miles. (more...)
The Lost Mine Trail is a strenuous 5 mile walk that starts at 5600 ft. and goes up to 6850 ft. The views are spectacular at nearly every step, and at the top there's a view across the mountains and down over a divide into two beautiful canyons.
This was the first long hike we took in the park. The trail goes up over some desert hills, and then along the Rio Grande to a hot spring next to the river.
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Big Bend National Park is a huge park - more than 800,000 acres - of river, desert, and mountains. It's in southwestern Texas, and it's southern border is the Rio Grande - and Mexico.
When we left the Mission area, we headed west, along the Rio Grande, toward Big Bend National Park.
This is another beautiful state park in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It's further east than Bentsen Rio Grande, and has large wetlands and ponds.
We visited several beautiful State Parks in the Lower Rio Grande Valley - the part of the Rio Grande in the southernmost part of Texas - close to where it flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
Mission, Texas is home to the North American Butterfly Association Butterfly Park. It's a small park, but completely devoted to attracting butterflies. It has almost all native plantings, including both food and nectar plants for the butterflies.
This is the second part of the story of the tides around the Bay of Fundy. But this is specifically about tidal bores - an unusual tidal phenomenon that only occurs in a few places in the world.