February 18 (part 1) - Day 4 in Big Bend National Park - Hiking Santa Elena Canyon

I took a lot of pictures today, so I decided to make this a 2 part post.

We brought our inflatable canoe with us on the trip in case we got the chance to do some paddling on the Rio Grande River. The intention was to paddle up river into the Santa Elena Canyon, then float back down to where we put in. There's also a trail that leads into the canyon, so we decided to hike it first so we could check out the put in area and see a small sampling of the scenery on foot.

The canyon area is on the opposite end of the park from where we were camped, so we got up early and headed that way. We arrived just after sunrise and were greeted with some nice early morning light. The first picture below is looking down river from the mouth of the canyon and the second is looking into the canyon.

sunrise on the Rio Grande River

looking into the Santa Elena Canyon

The trail is an out and back and listed at 1.7 miles round trip. It begins by switchbacking up for some better views looking both ways.

note the 2 people on the trail for scale

The trail then heads back down to river level, continues for a bit longer along the river, then ends. The only way to go any farther is to wade, swim, or paddle. This is an amazing area and a must see if you go to Big Bend. I could go on and on about how beautiful it is. Hopefully these pictures will do it justice.

looking back up into the park from back at the beginning of the trail

hoping this would be us in a couple of days

There's a lot more to see on this side of the park and it was still early, so we headed towards out next destination - the Lower Burro Mesa Pour-off  Trail.

February 17 - Day 3 in Big Bend National Park - More Birds and Scenery

We started today out with a stop at the Rio Grande Overlook to see if we could catch a nice sunrise. Cloud cover on the horizon blocked out the rising sun, so we moved up the road for another visit to Dugout Wells to check out the early morning birding situation. By now the clouds on the horizon were gone and we were treated to some nice light on the distant mountains.

Dugout Wells

Dugout Wells

Two ravens were in a tree at the parking area, so I snapped a photo of them before they flew off. I already had the Common Raven, but Chihuahuan Ravens (which I didn't have) are known to be in the area also. It wasn't until I got back that I was able to ID them as the latter - another new bird!

Chihuahuan Ravens

The differences in the 2 different ravens is very subtle, but a reference said the Common Ravens were found in the higher altitudes of the Chisos Mountains. I also post 'observations' on iNaturalist.org and the ones I shot were confirmed as Chihuahuan Ravens. I also got some pretty bad shots of 3 other new birds to me - White-winged Dove, Lesser Goldfinch, and a Lark Bunting - while we were at Dugout Wells. We also spotted a Black-tailed Jackrabbit and I snapped a couple of different Prickly Pear Cactus plants which is just a very small sampling of the plant life here.

Black-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus)

Blind Prickly Pear (Opuntia rufida)

Texas Prickly Pear (Opuntia engelmannii)

 
From Dugout Wells we headed back down the road towards Rio Grande Village and stopped at the Hot Springs to hike the loop trail. We figured there would be a good possibility of seeing birds there and we weren't disappointed. Most were birds we had already seen, but one wasn't - a Canyon Wren! We checked out the view by the river, then the petroglyphs on the cliffs.

Canyon Wren (Catherpes mexicanus)

view by the Rio Grande

petroglyphs

bird nests on the cliffs

The trail we picked to hike here was the Hot Springs Historic Trail which is a 1 mile loop with outstanding views of the Rio Grande River. The trail passes by the Hot Springs and the 'pool' was already filled with people, so we didn't stop. From the river, the trail heads up for the views, then circles back to the parking area which was full by the time we got back.

 

Torrey's Yucca (Yucca torreyi)

Spiny Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus dasyacanthus)

Turk's Head Cactus (Ferocactus hamatacanthus)

By now, it was mid afternoon and it was hot! Cindy suggested heading back to the campground, then back to the Nature Trail down to the river for a swim. That idea was hard to argue with. When we got to the river, 2 ladies had brought their chairs and were sunbathing, so we just headed up river a bit to our own private swimming hole. The 1st picture below is at the river, the 2nd is of the Del Carmen Mountains on the way back, and the 3rd is a coyote we spotted that had just strolled through the campground - nice.

Rio Grande River looking into Mexico

Del Carmen Mountains

Coyote

February 16 - Day 2 in Big Bend National Park - Birds, Wildflowers, and Mexican Trinkets

We decided to spend most of day 2 of our trip looking for birds. There's a nice nature trail leading from the Rio Grande Village campground, so we began there. The first part of the trail passes through a wetlands area that I assume is spring fed. The park had done a controlled burn a few days before we got there, so a lot of the area normally covered in reeds was charred nubs. There was still enough reed area to provide cover for some birds and we spotted what looked like a Swamp Sparrow and thought we heard a Marsh Wren. I didn't get pictures of either, but I did look down at the right time and spotted a Virginia Rail! This wasn't a new bird for either one of us, but it was a big surprise to see one here. It's not very common, but passes through the park during migration. My only other pictures of this bird are really bad, so I was happy to get better ones.

Virginia Rail

The trail leads out of the wetlands area and offers 2 choices - a loop trail that gains elevation and has views of the surrounding area, or an out and back down to the Rio Grande River. We chose the latter hoping more birds would be hanging out around the water. We struck out on the birds, but had a nice view of the river and saw a few wildflowers.

We had read in the park newspaper that we might come across home made items from the Mexicans in different area. Apparently they sneak across the river at night and set up the goods. The newspaper warns that it's illegal to buy these items, but I guess people do it anyway. We came across the first of several of these set ups very near the river and had no idea whether someone was keeping an eye on it or not.

River levels weren't very high and it would be very easy for someone to swim or wade across, but we never felt uneasy or really even gave it a second thought any time we were near the river. The river scene was nice, so we hung around a bit shooting the wildflowers we found. I was kind of surprised to find what looked like a lupine. After we got back I found out it's called Big Bend Bluebonnet (Lupinus havardii) and read that all species of Lupinus are considered the Texas state flower.

the Rio Grande River

Big Bend Bluebonnet (Lupinus havardii)

Big Bend Bluebonnet (Lupinus havardii)

Bicolor Fanmustard (Nerisyrenia camporum)

Purple Mat (Nama hispida)

We saved the loop part of the trail for another day and headed back to the campsite. On the way back I snagged another shot of a roadrunner. I kept the camera handy once we got back to the campsite and was glad I did. We had heard that the Vermilion Flycatchers frequented the campsite and one showed up while we were getting ready to head out again. We already had this bird, but not one this brightly colored!

Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus)

Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus obscurus)

Our next birding spot was a place called Dugout Wells. Cindy had read that this was a good birding spot - probably because it's a little desert oasis spot with a spring. The area was once a small community, but all that's left is a windmill. The Chihuahuan Desert Nature Trail is also at this spot. It's an easy 1/2 mile loop hike that gives you an excellent overview of life in this part of the desert. Plant life is abundant here, but most of them have sharp pointy things all over them and we really had to pay attention as we hike the trail. We got several new birds here including a Verdin, a Cactus Wren, Black-throated Sparrow, and a Pyrrhuloxia and saw quite a few more species of birds that we already had. We also spotted a Desert Cottontail Rabbit that was kind enough to sit still for a minute or two. Not all of the bird shots were good, but they were good enough to get ID's. We had really wanted the Pyrrhuloxia - a type of cardinal - so were pleased with that catch.

Pyrrhuloxia (Cardinalis sinuatus)

Black-throated Sparrow (Amphispiza bilineata)

Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus)

Desert Cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii)

From here we headed up to the Panther Junction visitor center to see what they offered and to probably get some ice at the nearby little store before it closed. We averaged about a bag of ice a day due to some of the hot temps we encountered - especially at the lower elevations. It was in the low 90's several of the days we were there. I did manage to pick up another new bird while at the visitor center - a Curve-billed Thrasher - so I was now up to 9 new birds in 2 days! After this, we returned to the campsite and called it an evening. Tomorrow would be another scenery day.

Curve-billed Thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre)

February 15 - Day 1 in Big Bend National Park - the Lost Mine Trail

I've decided to make another attempt at posting trip reports to this blog, but can't promise that I'll keep it up. Cindy and I just got back from a 2 week trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas and I need a place to post pictures for friends and family to see! So anywho...

We had been planning this trip for about a year now - well actually Cindy does the planning because she's good at it - and were almost thwarted by the bozos in DC threatening another government shutdown a couple of days before we were supposed to leave. Cindy's research indicated a good time to go would be in February due to the weather at that time of the year. She made reservations at the campground in Rio Grande Village in the park 6 months ahead of time to assure we would have a spot. It's a good thing she did, because the campgrounds were full the entire time we were there.

We left home on February 12 and took 3 days to get to Big Bend, making stops at state parks along the way. We got to our camp site late afternoon on the 14th and just chilled the rest of the day. A nature trail leads from the campground and we did take it to try to catch a sunset. Below are a shot of our camp site and the sunset we saw.

camp site 89 - our home for the next 2 weeks

sunset on day 1

We picked the Lost Mine Trail in the Chisos Mountains as our first full day hike since the forecast highs in the lower elevations were to be in the high 80's. This trail is 4.8 miles round trip with an elevation gain of 1100'. The reviews said there would be excellent views and the birding would be good. We knew before we left home that we had a chance of adding some new birds to our life list and couldn't wait to begin looking!

Parking is limited at this trail head, so we got there early and had no trouble finding a spot. It wasn't very long after we hit the trail that we got our first new bird - a Mexican Jay! It's not a great shot, but it still counts. Very soon after that we pointed the cameras at some movement in the trees and fired away at what turned out to be a Black-crested Titmouse which is very similar to the Tufted Titmouse we have at home here.

Mexican Jay

Black-crested Titmouse

Big Bend NP is part of the Chihuahuan Desert, but don't let the term desert fool you. The park is full of life and the plants and animals within are amazing. The Lost Mine Trail offers a great sampling of the plants and trees of the desert mountains which include different cacti, native grasses, yuccas, oak and juniper trees. We were hoping to see some wildflowers on this trip also, but many of the plants are still dormant at this time of year. We did manage to see a few though! Below is a small sampling of some of the plants along the trail. Big Bend is home to 3 different kinds of agave. The first picture below is the Havard Agave (Agave havardiana) which must be amazing when it blooms. The 2nd picture is a Lechugilla (Agave lecheguilla) which is the indicator plant of the Chihuahuan Desert. It is found in all portions of the Chihuahuan Desert from Texas and New Mexico to south central Mexico, but not found anywhere else. The last is the first flower we saw, but the plant is actually a flowering shrub - Bigelow's Bristlehead (Carphochaete bigelovii)

Havard Agave

Lechugilla

Bigelow's Bristlehead

About a mile into the hike, the views started getting good and got better as we switchbacked up the mountain. 

A short spur trail leads out to the view in the last shot above. Another couple was already at the end and as we waited for them to clear out, our 3rd new bird of the day appeared - a Greater Roadrunner! We were really hoping to see one of these and we ended up seeing several on the trip.

Greater Roadrunner

The trail got steeper as we continued up and the views got better. The next shot is a trail shot looking back at a group of hikers that was closing in on us, and the 2nd one looks back towards the Chisos Basin and The Window which is another excellent hike we did on another day,

By the time we reached the top, the wind had really picked up and it was tough holding on to our hats - and camera gear. The views were absolutely outstanding, though. We met a man who was painting and I don't know how he managed to hold on to all of his stuff. This hike really set the tone for just how excellent this trip would turn out to be. Below are 3 shots from the top. You can see the man painting in the far left of the 1st shot.