
Century Plant or Havard's Agave

Casa Grande

Purple Prickly Pear

Ocotillo in bloom

Somewhere along the Window Path


Weeping Juniper or Mexican Juniper


The Century Plant pre-bloom.

Santa Elena Canyon (Left side: Mexico, Middle: Rio Grande, Right: Texas). Cheat: This is really Dad's photo...I have a lot to learn about landscape editing (and lots more for that matter).

I've wanted to camp at Big Bend since elementary school, but never had the chance until this last weekend. The Chisos Mountain Basin was all it was cracked up to be (the rest was a little too much like El Paso which is old hat to me now). There were deer winding their way through the campsite first thing in the morning, and the landscape was something out of a very old cowboy movie. All of Saturday a song out of Three Amigos ran through my head (you know, that one where they're gathered by the campfire on their way to confront El Guapo).
Auden & Matti had just as much fun as I did (and Chris enjoyed it even if he hated the drive). Auden said that Schlitterbahn was better, but Big Bend was next best. It probably wouldn't have been quite as great if we had had to sleep in a tent (I hate tents; old bones). Dad had his camper along & shared (then again, if we'd been in a tent, Matti wouldn't have fallen on my head in the middle of the night). All in all, we hiked 6 miles & I'm ready to go back for more someday soon (once I forget how long the drive is). The drive down was dark so I had no idea what desolate landscape we were cutting through, but on the way back I couldn't stop wondering why people would ever choose to live there. Right on the Rio Grande I understand, but... At some point, a bit before Alpine, it got better.
So then there's Marfa. On the way down (Friday night), Marfa was Lit up. It looked like there were great restaurants, bars, galleries, and other cool whatnot everywhere. Not so much on a Sunday afternoon. I was sort of disappointed (but then I had super high expectations). I took a few photos and certainly could have taken more (but I worried about boring the snot out of Chris & the boys). I'll post those next time. Love, Sara
p.s. I really appreciate showers & hate sand even more than I already did. I despise sand. I didn't even like it when we were in Monterey, which is not desolate at all (and sand didn't even interfere with my clothes drying or house cleaning there). I'm pretty sure hell is sandy- just putting that out there.