2008 – Week 23

Tuesday, September 30, 2008:
We had a good night sleep and then took our showers. I must comment on how nice it is to live where there are strict smoking laws. As we traveled across AZ, NM and now TX, many more people smoke, and everyplace we go smells of smoke. We left the RV Park and refilled with propane before heading west a bit to go to AAA for more books and maps. We are now set for the trip home plus some other trips in the future. We had 2 more chores to do before we headed to the Guadalupe Mountains NP, about 100 miles east. The first was to the self-service car wash where we were successful in removing all the grasshoppers killed yesterday. Both Susie and I washed as Daisy watched and was occasionally sprayed, much to her annoyance. We were unable to clean the brown streaks off the roof and rear surfaces. Susie was on the roof and believes that the brown comes from the eucalyptus trees that we parked under at Morro Bay SP. We filled with gas and took off, eating lunch on the way. Our internal time clocks are a bit confused as we turned the time 2 hours ahead last night because we knew that today we would enter the Central Time Zone. We are now only an hour different from home even though we are 1,843 miles (so Gabby Garmin says) away as the crow flies. We drove east across land that was fenced, but it wasn’t until we had gone 75 miles that we saw cattle and pronghorn antelope. A bit later we saw the outline of the Guadalupe Mountains. As we approached from the west with the sun at our backs the light tan color of the Guadalupe Mountains was very striking. At the foot of the mountains there are dry salt lakes and a few irrigated fields. We wondered where the fresh water came from. We had been driving at an altitude of 3,000-4,000 feet, but as we turned north into the Park we started climbing to the Visitor Center at 5,822 feet. El Capitan, the southern most point of the Guadalupe Mountains, with a peak elevation of 8.085 feet was in our face as we turned north. It is not the highest point; that distinction goes to Guadalupe Peak at 8,749 feet. Only Guadalupe Peak is accessible by trail. These mountains are a part of the Capitan Reef, a 400 mile-long reef that was formed some 260,000,000 years ago. There are only 3 parts of this original reef visible today: the Guadalupe Mountains, Apache Mountains and the Glass Mountains. The shallow sea that created this reef evaporated and the reef was covered with sediment. About 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 years ago, give or take a few days, there were movements in the earth that raised up the earth and slowly the overburden was removed leaving the 3 sections visible. The Visitor Center was supposed to close at 4:30pm but we thought they were in no hurry and extended the hours to accommodate several late arrivals. Actually the Park was on Mountain Daylight Time, and we had our clocks set to the wrong time. After collecting information on hikes and sights to see, we drove through the Campground and then on to the Frijole Ranch. The first house, built around 1876, was a 2-room building and was located adjacent to a spring that today flows at 6 gallons/minute. There are 6 springs within a 3-mile radius of the ranch house, providing water for a limited number of cattle and sheep. When we looked at the land, we were astounded that there was that much water available. Of course, eventually there was a drought, the water supply was reduced and the ranching operation failed. We returned to the campground and ended up talking to recently retired man. He and his wife are doing much the same thing as we are, and he is struggling a bit with the need to smell the roses. He and his wife lived in Hopewell NJ, only a few miles from where we lived before moving to MD. As the sun set, and the temperature drop, Susie cooked dinner, and then we went inside. We have changed Daisy’s food to the bland diet because of the altitude. She seemed a bit sluggish, and we suspect it is the altitude issue again. Tomorrow, we’ll probably head to McKittrick Canyon for a hike up the McKitrick Canyon.


Wednesday, October 1, 2008:
Oops, I discovered that we are not in the Central Time Zone, but the Mountain Time Zone due a zig and zag in the line. I did not change anything as it will all be fixed when we head south towards Fort Davis and the University of Texas McDonald Observatory. We took the McKitrick Canyon Trail today, and it was well worth the 7.75-mile hike. The first mile was generally in the open and exposed to the sun but since it was early and the sun at our back, it was comfortable. We trudged along and realized that the canyon was getting narrower as the mountains around us closed it. We crossed an absolutely clear stream twice within the first 1.5 miles, but there were rocks across so we didn’t get wet, except when we slipped off the rocks. The trees and plantings became greener as a result of this water source. We did notice that the leaves of the deciduous trees have started change color adding another dimension to the hike. The further we progressed the narrower the canyon. The mountains, especially to the south, were tall and colorful. On our way in, we passed by the Pratt House, but would visit it on the way back. We continued another 2 miles to the Grotto and the Line Shed. The Grotto had been carved out by the floodwaters over a long period, and it was like looking into the mouth of an animal with very deformed teeth. We had lunch there and found a pair of small blue jeans and socks drying on a picnic table. We left them there but told the Ranger when we returned. We continued on to the Line Shed, built in 1924. It has been restored structurally, but we could not get inside. That was a far as we could go on this side trail so we turned out and headed back. Once again, the sun was at our backs, and the view was completely different due to the ever-changing shadows. We noticed the different features and views and took advantage of the stream crossings to soak our hats to use as ‘swamp coolers’. We did stop at the Pratt House, built in 1931, and were amazed by the construction. All the surfaces, including the roof, are grouted stone. The roof beams were the only wood used in the structure.
The Pratts lived in this house for many years after he retired. In 1966 the son of J. C. Hunter, who had been buying land in the area since 1923, sold 72,000 acres to the NPS in1966. When the Pratts were almost washed away in a flood, they gave their 5,000 acres of land to the National Park Service in the 1970’s to incorporate into Park. We returned to the Campground and took sponge baths. The temperature today didn’t top 80 degrees and with very low humidity, it was a great day for hiking. We saw several hikers returning to the Campground after having accomplished much more strenuous hikes that we did. They were tired but proud. The sun went down behind the mountains at 5:20pm MDT, and the temperature cooled rapidly. It should be a good sleeping night.

Thursday, October 2, 2008:
Another wonderful morning! I met an English (?) woman who did a long hike yesterday and was going to the high point of the Park and coincidently, the high point of Texas today. I also talked to a young man who is on a quest to summit all the high points in the 50 States. I didn’t ask if this was the highest so far, because if it is, he has a long way to go. We sat at the picnic table and worked on the blogs. I saw a car with Maryland license plates and discovered a young man who lived in Towson. His home now is the red Ford Escort station wagon. He had taken time off from work to tour the West Coast and was on his way home to spend a bit a time with his family before going to Europe with a friend. We left the Campground at noon CDT, and drove south to Fort Davis to spend 2 nights to visit the McDonald Observatory and historic Fort Davis. We drove south on TX54 and when we reached I-10 we decided to fill with gas and buy milk in the town of Van Horn. Several of the gas stations had closed, but the Pilot Truck Stop was open. It is another town on the way out. We continued south on US90, which runs in a very flat area between mountain ranges covered with green sagebrush. As in 2003, we crossed swales that had water depth indicators to warn the motorists of the danger of being swept away during heavy rains. We continued south, and the land showed signs of becoming good ranch land. We even saw a few head of cattle. As we were approaching the town of Valentine (population 290 on a good day), I saw a small building with a glass storefront with the name Prada on it. It couldn’t have been the clothing chain because there was no one with enough money to buy even Wal-Mart stuff. At the same time, Susie saw a big white object in the sky. Resisting the temptation to say that it was a UFO looking for Roswell NM, I took out the binoculars as we came closer and saw that it was a helium filled balloon shaped like a blimp. I have seen photos of these blimps, and Homeland Security and the Border Patrol operated them to look for illegal immigrants, etc. Soon after, we turned east into the Davis Mountains. We went through town, bought milk and proceeded to the State Campground where we found that they only had room for us at a site with water and electricity but that we could ‘dry camp’ tomorrow night. Since we will have access to showers, that works for us. We arrived at 3:30pm CDT, and after 150 miles decided to take a break by not taking a hike and instead sat under the trees. It is quiet here but we were told that there is some sort of convention over the week. Susie heard a noise in the adjacent campsite. She thought she saw a javelina, an animal similar to a pig that resides in these areas. I went out to look and saw not one but seven of these animals, some of which came out of the tent. One was stuck inside for a bit and tried to get out through the closed end. I guess the owner of the tent, when he gets back, should be thankful it wasn’t a skunk! Incidentally, the sunset tonight is at 7:40pm and sunrise tomorrow at 7:49am. That’s what happens when you’re at the far west end of a time zone.

Friday, October 3, 2008:
We decided to take a hike this morning and then go to the McDonald Observatory for a series of programs that started at 2:00pm. We left the RV at 10:00am and started the hike, but were soon convinced that we had the wrong trail. Back to the campground where we found a park employee, and when we explained what we were trying to do, she assured us that we were on the correct trial, but needed to go further. Having wasted about an hour, we started up again, and at 11:30am, we found ourselves on the top of a ridge with a great 360-degree view. Off to the north were the three telescope structures of the McDonald Observatory and to the south a set of very large roofed structures that we couldn’t identify. We stayed for about 20 minutes, and then walked down. This hike was interesting to me, because when we stayed here in 2003, I was unable to make it to the top due to the large amount of beta-blockers I was taking at the time. Since I am off them now, five years later the hike was a success. We took showers and ate lunch while driving to the Observatory. The first program was about the sun, and we were able to view the sun through one of the telescopes and different filters. We saw the distortion caused by viewing through the atmosphere. We also saw pictures of the edge of the sun and solar flares that were coming off the edge. That section took one hour, and then we were taken to see two telescopes. The Harlan J. Smith telescope became operational, had a 107-inch diameter mirror and was what is now considered an old design. The mirror is coated with a very thin layer of aluminum, so thin that a single soda can provides enough material for four coatings. The mirror is cleaned with carbon dioxide gas. The Hobby-Eberly telescope was the first of a new concept that was developed by two Penn State astronomers. The mirror is actually 91 individual 6-sided mirrors creating an effective mirror of 30-foot diameter. The structure supporting the mirrors is a truss, similar to but stronger, similar to those we often see support roofs in shopping centers and other long span applications. The roof over the telescope is a geodesic dome, also much lighter and easier to rotate than the old design.
The picture above is one of the mirror and the reflections of the structure. It was confusing to look at in the real, so the picture will take a bit of study. The lecturer for this presentation was wonderful and managed to keep everyone interested. Maybe it wasn’t the fastest moving 2 hours and 45 minutes we have spent in a long time. The tour finished at 4:30pm so we went back to the RV, and I took Daisy for a walk while Susie made a light dinner. We returned to the Visitor Center at &:00pm for a 1-hour presentation on the constellations, first inside with the assistance of a computer program, and then outside to act out the movements of the planets in relation to the constellations. At 8:00pm, we started our last program, once again outside. It was also a great program and ended with us looking at different at different areas of the sky through 8 different telescopes. We left the Observatory at 10:45pm and headed back to the Campground to immediately go to bed.

Saturday, October 4, 2008:
We decided to have breakfast at a hotel and conference center run by the State of Texas. That was a welcome change for both of us. We decided to take another route out of the Campground and drove up a steep winding hill, actually the same one we climber yesterday. We had great views, but were surprised when the road came to an end at the edge of a cliff. Turn around and back down. You might think they would put a “No Outlet” sign at the bottom of the hill. Off we went to visit the Fort Davis National Historic Park. We have seen many historic forts, but this was the first masonry one. If you are ever in the area, it is worth the 2 hours we spent walking through. Fort Davis existed from 1854-1891 but wasn’t always operational. The first fort was abandoned by the US when Texas left the Union, but the Confederates took over for a while until they realized that the Northerners weren’t the problem, the Apaches were. The fort fell into disrepair and not much remained when the US again took over the site in June 1867. The fort was rebuilt and used to secure the area against the Apaches. The Fort continued to be operational until 1891, but the last military operation occurred in 1880. An interesting aspect of this Fort was that after the Civil War, the enlisted soldiers were black and the officers were white. 2nd Lt Henry O. Flipper, first black officer graduated from West Point, served at this Fort was court-martialed and dismissed from the US Army. In 1976, his court-martial was reviewed and overturned and he was given a full presidential pardon in 1999. We continued on to the Chihuahan Desert Nature Center and Cactus Gardens, located 4 miles south of Fort Davis. This desert extends south into Mexico and actually there may be more of it in Mexico than in the US. There were numerous plants, all with identification, so Susie was able to confirm some of the material she had seen over the last few weeks. There was also a greenhouse and the planting dates were shown in each of the pots. These cacti are very slow growing! At the exit from the tour was an exhibit of mining in the area in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. There were samples of rock displayed and named so there was much to remember. Do much we didn’t have a chance! We left there and headed south on TX118 to the town of Alpine where we decided to buy lunch and drive south. We went into this good-looking place and ordered 2 sandwiches. It took at least a half an hour, and only after I said I wanted my money back did the food finally arrive. I had been noticing that I wasn’t the only one with a problem; there were several table was orders were completely fouled up. I was happy to leave. Interestingly AMTRAK has a station stop in this town. We tried to continue south on TX118, but reached the railroad tracks just as the guards went down so we sat and ate the sandwiches as a long train carrying double-decked shipping containers rolled by. Finally we headed south and the terrain became better looking every mile. There was more grazing land with low mountains punching up through the land. There were many odd shapes and were a welcome change to the flats we had been driving through. We stopped in the town of Sturdy Butte as the southwest side of Big Bend NP and checked into a RV Park. There were about 150 spaces, but only 6 were full. We wondered when the season is. We plugged in and ran the AC, trying to cool off the RV. We worked on the blogs, and I tried to use the information I learned last night but there was too much light pollution. It was warm enough that we had to use the lightweight blankets plus the fans.

Sunday, October 5, 2008:
It was still warm this morning when Daisy and I took our walk. When we returned, Susie had gone to take a shower so I fed Daisy and went to the showers. They were clean and the water was hot, but they charged $2.00 for 6 minutes. I suppose that it because we were in the Chihuahuan Desert and want to conserve water. However, since this is a full service (electric, water and sewer) campground, the people with the big rigs can use all the water they want without even thinking about it. We filled with gas and bought 2 muffins for breakfast on the go. Unfortunately they had potassium sorbate in them so Susie couldn’t eat hers. We suspect that everything has preservatives because they need a long shelf life. We drove into Big Bend National Park passing through flatlands and mountains.
The mountains are generally small, maybe only 3,000 feet about the flatlands but show signs of being volcanic in origin. We passed a coyote and then turned south on the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to the Castolon Visitor Center on the Rio Grande River. We decided to pass by most of the scenic viewpoints on the way south, except for Sotol Vista and Mule Ears Overlooks, and would visit them on the way back. It didn’t turn out that way! The Sotol Vista was at elevation 4,200 feet, and we were able to get great views of the Chisos Mountains to the south and east and the flatlands to the west. The wind was blowing and the temperatures were still cool. We saw a lay-by with an information plaque that explained all the different layers of stone that were exposed on Goat Mountain, a volcano that erupted 29 million years ago. The plaque was very informative and confirmed Susie earlier remarks that this looked like a volcano area. We continued south to the Mule Ears Overlook and took a short hike to get to the top of a small ridge to get a better view of the Mule Ears Peaks (highest @ elev 3881 feet). We continued to Castolon Visitor Center to find that the Rangers will not be there until November 1, but the store was open, and we had the shopkeeper to ourselves. Susie bought some stuff, and I have my ‘passport’ stamped, proving we had been there. The last purchase was ice cream bars. The road continues to the northwest along the Rio Grande, but it was closed due to the flooding. We were able to see the Santa Elena Canyon, where the river has cut through the Mesa de Anguila, but not get close due to the flooding. We had seen and hiked up it in 2003 on an earlier visit. We hopped back into the RV and headed back, stopping at the Burro Mesa Pouroff. We thought that there was a misspelling, but it turns out that a pouroff is a point where, during the rains, the water from the mesa drops to the floor below. We hiked about a mile up the dry watercourse until we found the pouroff. On the way there we saw how the water had cut through the rock, exposing the various layers of stone created by the volcanic eruptions. The colors were bright and the layers very discernable. We thoroughly enjoyed the walk and then headed towards Park HQ to see what added info we could find. While talking to the Park Ranger, I overheard someone say there were only 2 spots left, and she was headed there now. I took that to be the Basin Campground, interrupted the conversation and off we went to get a spot. A bit of explanation, in 2003 we stayed in a campground set up for RV’s, but it was flooded and hasn’t been reopened so there are very few spots for RV’s. Since ours is small we could go to the Basin Campground at about 5,000 feet elevation and surrounded by mountains with top elevations in excess of 6,000 feet. We wanted to be there because the weather would be cooler, and there were several hikes to choose from. We checked in and found several available sites so the woman must have been talking about the Lodge rather than the Campground. We took a walk to the Visitor Center where we saw a collection of very plain buildings. The only interesting part of the Visitor Center was the capstone on the top of a masonry wall. It was a multi-colored stone that neither of us had ever seen. While walking, we took lots of pictures so I had a bunch of stuff to do. Susie finished her drawings for today before she went to sleep.

Monday, October 6, 2008:
The sun really takes a long time to shed any light on things when you are down in a basin surrounded by mountains. As you might surmise, we were a bit slow this morning, but had a good breakfast and conversation with the folks Susie met in Ft Davis State Park. They were headed to NM for a few days and wanted our input. I think the consensus was for them to go to Guadalupe Mountains NP and Carlsbad Canyon NP, which are adjacent to each other. Off they went, and we headed to the Visitor Center to ask about hikes. Everyone in the Center agreed that we should take the Lost Mine Trail. The story about the Lost Mine is that a Spaniard found a vein of silver and made slaves of the natives to mine the silver. The natives took it for just so long, revolted and killed the Spaniards, closed the mine so that it would never be found and that’s the end of the story even though people still poke around. The trail does not go to Lost Mine Peak, but it is visible at the end on the 4.8-mile round trip, with a vertical climb of 1,000 feet to the top at 6,935 feet.


It took us a bit more than 2 hours to make the climb, and on the way up, we met the people who we thought had gone to Guadalupe Mountains. It took 1 hour to come back down, after goofing off for an hour at the top. The people in the Visitor Center were right. It was a wonderful hike with great views in all directions. We returned to the RV, had lunch and started driving. Susie drove 65 miles north until we were stopped at another Border Patrol station. The Captain asked us the usual questions, and then he and Susie had a conversation about cooking and eating cactus. I still am not sure that he wasn’t pulling her leg. Just after we left Big Bend, a small dark grey jet aircraft flew low overhead at a slow rate of speed and then turned east. We assumed it was looking for illegal border crossings, but with all the floods on the Rio Grande, it would be hard to cross. I drove the 5 miles to US90 and turned east for the 130-mile drive to Seminole Canyon State Park, another place we had stayed in 2003. The road was so flat that I was able to us the cruise control for 65 miles before I had to turn it off when we reached the town of Sanderson. I almost drove through when Susie asked how the gas level was and discovered that we didn’t have enough to get to the next town. We turned around and went to the only (we thought) station in town. Susie took over driving, and it seemed that the land was flatter than before. Unlike the driving yesterday, the mountains were far in the distance and the only structures were saw were hunting blinds and feeders to entice the animal. Some of the feeders were between the road and the hunting blinds. We wondered how many people had been shot. We eventually made Seminole Canyon SP, but it was dark so we just pulled into a campsite, hooked up the electricity and decompressed for a bit before working on the blogs. It is warm outside so it feels like light weight bed covers tonight. It was warm, but the wind began to blow, and it was a pleasant night.