Hey, There's a Big Bend in This River

I made it to Big Bend!

I wasn't entirely certain I would be able to include it in this trip. When I left Fmtn, I hadn't realized it was spring break this past week. No wonder everything was so crowded! I called the park HQ before I left Pecos (lovely place, Pecos. Even their Wal-Mart is the size of my first apartment) friday morning to find out if there was any chance of getting a campsite, and the Nice Lady told me that it had been full all week, but as of that morning people were pouring out of there like mad. Yay, people. Out of my way.

I got a lovely site in the Chisos campground. Ok, it wasn't lovely. It didn't even have a picnic table. But it was a two-room site, with a small clearing next to the main campsite where I could pitch my tent surrounded by bushes. I don't know why it didn't have a picnic table, but I had a folding chair in the backseat, so I was set. I chose Chisos out of the three campgrounds on account of the big signs saying that there are hairpin turns on the road to the campground, and that RVs over 24' shouldn't go there. Now THAT'S my kind of campground!

I hiked up the Lost Mine Peak trail on friday. It was a nice trail. It was steep. There was no mine - apparently they lost it. There was, however, a fantastic view.

Here's a coarse conglomerate overlain by a much finer conglomerate. Applesauce for scale.

Here is a javelina peeking at me through the bushes. It's eating a prickly pear cactus. They do that. The whole thing, not just picking around the pointy bits. This behavior leads me to two possible conclusions: a) javelinas have evolved very tough mouths which are not damaged by the spines of the cactus, or b) javelinas are dumb. But they are kind of cute without tusks.

Here's the view from the top of Lost Mine Peak trail. It's the contact between a porphyritic rhyolite and a boring rhyolite. Used applesauce for scale.

Here is another view from the top. Note the pretty striped volcanic rocks. The technical term for these is Pretty Striped Rocks.

On the way back down, I noticed this great rock. Note the concentric crystalization pattern around the inclusion and the deformation along the fracture lines. Animal cracker (sheep) for scale.

Ok. Done boring most of you with pictures of rocks. I hiked back down the trail and had a lovely camp dinner of Whatever Is In the Car.