Chisos Mining Company Motel Terlingua

... to go to Mexico.<br>After a little thought, it was on well what the heck we are getting<br>showers and laundry later and can get dry clothes back at the bus, we<br>cant miss out on the opportunity of going to Mexico, so in she went,<br>her own concern was that she would not be strong enough against the<br>current. Starting slightly upstream Michelle started to walk across,<br>she was nearly at Jonathan hand, and then she started sliding.. down ...

... doughnuts. The drive was more than worth it. The doughnuts melted in your mouth and had a deliciously rich glaze. We&#8217;ll spare you more taste-bud tantalizing details but if you&#8217;re ever in the Austin area, make sure to stop by. The rest of the weekend was filled with trying to convince Mark to decorate his very bland apartment with items from the SoCo area, watching movies, and eating more Austin ...

... for a spectacular panoramic view of the dessert below. I had a little trouble at the higher altitudes: my legs felt like lead, my movement was labored, and I got cranky (as John can attest to), but we carried plenty of water with us, and by the time our descent was underway, my energy surged again. The view from the top and sense of accomplishment was worth the discomfort. A drive clear across Big Bend to the southeastern edge of the park, took us to the banks of the Rio ...

So, as we mentioned in the last entry, Big Bend has been experiencing the worst flooding in memory, with water over 20 feet higher than normal. Of course, with flows like this, we had to get on the water to see it for ourselves. So we signed up for a rafting trip to get an up close experience of the water. Our trip ended up being through Santa Elena canyon, a beautiful section of the river with ...

... scary moment where we saw nothing but sky, the car made it over the hump and landed on the road above. You should have seen our celebration! The best part, though, was that just before we tried it, I turned to Mike and said, "Are we being clever or stupid?" His answer was "both". So I guess in the end, we were clever, stupid and lucky, because we made it out the other end and drove another 10 miles or so until we found ourselves back on a paved road.

... isolation. Our campground has been visited by a mountain lion in the past week, a bear a couple days ago and we have had a great time watching local Javelinas and deer graze through the place making Sophie a bit crazy. We got in a it of hiking and will now get ready to go north to The MacDonald Observatory in NW Texas. We have passed this place a number of times but never stopped. Now is our chance. So...back to 55 mph and hoping for more interesting scenery.

... to the trailhead you have to cross a stream. Like all well used stream crossings somebody has come before you and inserted medium size rocks for you to walk on. The trick is to not fall in. Soggy socks and shoes do not make good walking attire. Being a photographer is a lot of work. I climbed up and down those stairs at least a dozen times to get the different angles of the rising sun. And it's not like you can tell the sun to hold it while you reposition ...

... few kilometres of the trail are extremely rough. If there were no loose bolts on the truck before, there definitely are some now. The going was a little smoother for the remainder of the trip...but not by much. I took over 150 pictures this evening then drove back in the dark. My off-road driving lights came in handy. I won't write much as I'm heading back there in the morning to get some sunrise pictures. So I have to be gone by 6h30 am to ...

... hay by 6:45. Next day, we broke camp, packed up the backpacks, and headed for the next site. We had used our water heavily, and carrying it this time was not nearly so painful (especially for me, since we had used ALL my water first before breaking into Kelly's stash). The third day's hike was 2 miles uphill, and then 4-5 downhill through Boot Canyon. It was an even prettier hike than the day before, although the views were not so sweeping ...

... where I could look for oceans, I found some, but there were no oceans as far as the eye could see. I hiked back, but it was a 11 mile return hike and took me a good part of the day. Afterwards I ventured into a canyon, and found another campsite for the night.