Boulder County Wandering
  • Home
  • Climate Change and Colorado Wildfires
  • Trip Reports
  • Skills/Gear
    • Intro, External Sources and Misc.
    • Food and Water
    • Shelters
    • Backpacks
    • Sleeping
    • Clothing
    • Winter Camping
    • A Shoe Odyssey
    • Foot Care
    • Maps, Navigation and Weather
    • Off-Trail Route Planning
    • The Perfect Headlight/Flashlights?
    • Misc Small Stuff
    • Photography/Camera
    • Gear Repair and MYOG
  • Places
    • Flatirons
    • Rocky Mountain National Park
    • Indian Peaks Wilderness
    • Lost Creek Wilderness
    • Gore Range
    • Glacier National Park
    • Wind River Range
    • Utah
  • Plants and Wildlife
  • Contact
  • To Do
  • About

TriP Reports

Home on the Range in Big Bend NP (Big Bend NP, Texas)

2/9/2020

3 Comments

 
Trip dates: Dec 22-23, 2019
Caltopo map here: ​https://caltopo.com/m/U0H1
Picture
Just before Christmas I made a "quick" trip to Big Bend National Park on the way from Boulder Colorado to Austin Texas.  Like the majority of other backpackers there, I did the Outer Mountain Loop (30 miles, +/- 7000').  This is mountainous, rugged terrain but compared to what I'm used to in Colorado, the biggest challenge was the lack of water.  There are two sanctioned NPS bear boxes (roughly equally spaced) available for cacheing water.  The Homer Wilson site is on a 2WD road but Juniper Canyon requires 4WD.  I only used the Homer Wilson site. 

I did the route in two days primarily to eliminate heavy water carries.  When I was there, Fresno Creek was flowing strong at it was easy to fill my bottles at ~1.5 L/min.  The whole route could be done without any water cache under these conditions (but I agree with NPS that you should always cache water).    Big Bend Chat appears to more frequent water reports than  NPS.   

Driving through Guadalupe Mountains NP

I drove far out of the way to get a chance to see Guadalupe Mountains NP.  Google will tell you that the fastest way to get to to Big Bend NP from Boulder is to take I-25 down to Las Vegas NM, 85 to Vaughan NM,  then US 285 to Fort Stockton, Texas and then US 385 to Big Bend.  

If you look at a terrain map, it's fairly obvious this is a stupid way to go.
Picture
Don't go the fastest route. You'll want to put forks in your eyes.
Picture
I was planning on taking the turn at US 54 at Vaughn NM (the junction in top of this map) but missed the turn. The scenery was like this for the nest 180 miles. This photo is actually particularly scenic as you can see the mountains in mountains I'm supposed to be driving nexts too. Ordinarily I would have turned around but I wasn't going to reach Big Bend till 11pm as it was so I kept going. I don't like the term "flyover country" but you can miss 3 hours of this.
Around Carlsbad NM the scenery started to get more interesting.  From Carlsbad I jumped on US 180 to make a drive-by of Guadalupe NP.  This is highly recommended.  

Carlsbad NM appeared to be an interesting place.  At one point I passed a house that had built sandbag walls around the yard with a 25 foot flag pole flying a flag that said "Trump/Pence 2020: Go fuck yourself".  I really wanted to take a picture but I kept thinking about the arsenal that guy must have in his bedroom.
Picture
I really had no idea that Texas Mountains could be so beautiful.

Picture
El Capitan. I'm curious about whether this El Capitan or the "big brother" in Yosemite was named first? Presumably Yosemite, although the timeline appears to favor Texas.
Picture

Big Bend NP

Picture
I cowboy camped 4/5 nights on this trip (see opening photo quad). I could get used to this.
Picture

Day 1

I didn't really have a clue what Chisos Basin would look like.  This is the best part of not googling photos of where you're going beforehand.  

While driving into Chisos Basin from the north, I couldn't help but think ahout Tolkien-esque fortresses built into the mountains.  I didn't take pictures because I was sure I'd take them on the way out; this is stupid choice when you're forgetful.  
Picture
UN 7150' in Chisos Basin.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
I think this was called "Jackass rock" or something. I also realized why my trail was named the "Pinnacles Trail"
Picture
Picture
Picture
Boot Canyon (actually a wrong turn).
Picture
Views south on the descent down Juniper Canyon.
Picture
There is a significant bear population in Chisos Basin.  I think they stick to this area because of the the basin catches more water than anywhere else around which results in abnormally high amounts of vegetation.  There was a TON of bear poop- I was very surprised.    It rivaled the amount I'd seen in Glacier NP.  I suspect the high amounts of poop result from dry, barren conditions that slow down decomposition as opposed to comparable bear population.  
Picture
For the most part the piles of bear poop were small (as you would expect for bears that haver to live in the desert).
Picture
Bobcat I think.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Day 2

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
The other challenging part about Big Bend compared to Colorado was all the sand.  This got in my shoes and ground my feet to bits.  I wound up doing 2-3 foot treatments per day which involved applying  a thick salve to my feet and letting it dry.  
Picture
One of several midday foot treatments.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
After completing the OML I camped at Cottonwood Campground because of its proximity to Santa Elena Canyon.  I woke up before dawn and drove the few miles to see it.  
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
It's not hard to see why Big Bend is a national park.  I'll be back.  
3 Comments
Thomas
2/13/2020 11:04:06 am

I did some of the TR NP grasslands in North Dakota in July without caching, and it was horrendous. There are sumps where you'd find some filthy puddles, but the water is too salty to drink. Also you'd always climb back up to the level of the plateau and find you'd picked up ~10^1 - 10^2 ticks.

Not especially germane, but I'm proctoring an exam.

Reply
Susan Kniebes
2/18/2020 05:25:11 pm

I finally got a chance to see if you'd documented your Big Bend NP trip. Was very glad to see it, especially Santa Elena Canyon. The area you hiked through reminds me a lot of the area around Tucson, AZ, especially Saquaro NP. I could identify some of the cactus you saw in Big Bend because they are also around Tucson.

Reply
David
2/18/2020 06:03:00 pm

Looks fantastic. So much peaceful beauty. So much sky. I an envious of your great trip. Thanks for putting it on line for us.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Travis Briles

    Subscribe

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016

    Categories

    All
    2017
    2018
    2019
    2020
    Backpacking
    Big Bend National Park
    Black Ridge Canyon Wilderness
    Boulder
    Boulder Foothills
    Boulder OSMP
    Boulder Reservoir
    BURL
    Bushwhack
    Cache La Poudre Wilderness
    California
    Calwood Fire
    Canyonlands National Park
    Car Camping
    Colorado
    Colorado National Monument
    Colorado Trail
    Comanche Peaks Wilderness
    Coulson Gulch
    Day Hike
    Desolation Wilderness
    Eldorado Canyon
    Estes Park
    Fairview Peak
    Flatirons
    Glacier Gorge
    Glacier National Park
    Golden
    Golden Gate Canyon State Park
    Goosenecks State Park
    Gore Range
    Grand Junction
    Grand Teton National Park
    Great Sand Dunes National Park
    Gross Reservoir
    Hall Ranch
    Hawaii
    Heil Valley Ranch
    High Route
    Indian Peaks Wilderness
    Island In The Sky
    James Peak Wilderness
    Jefferson County Open Space
    Lake Tahoe
    Lefthand Canyon
    LIGANN Traverse
    Lost Creek Wilderness
    Lyons
    Mauna Loa
    Middle St. Vrain
    Mohling Traverse
    Montana
    Monument Valley
    Mt Evans Wilderness
    Mummy Range
    Natural Bridges National Monument
    Needles District
    Never Summer Wilderness
    North Table Mountain
    NYC
    Off Trail
    Off-trail
    Palo Duro Canyon
    Pfiffner Traverse
    Rabbit Mountain
    Ralph Price Reservoir
    Rawah Wilderness
    RMNP
    Sangre De Cristo
    Scramble
    Scrambling
    Snowshoeing
    Snowy Range
    South Platte
    St. Vrain
    Ten Mile Range
    Texas
    Urban
    Utah
    Valley Of The Gods
    Vasquez Wilderness
    Walker Ranch
    White Ranch Open Space
    Wild Basin
    Wild Basin High Route
    Wildfire
    Wind River Range
    Winiger Ridge
    Winter
    Winter Backpacking
    Winter Camping
    Wyoming
    Year In Review
    Yellowstone National Park

    RSS Feed


Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Climate Change and Colorado Wildfires
  • Trip Reports
  • Skills/Gear
    • Intro, External Sources and Misc.
    • Food and Water
    • Shelters
    • Backpacks
    • Sleeping
    • Clothing
    • Winter Camping
    • A Shoe Odyssey
    • Foot Care
    • Maps, Navigation and Weather
    • Off-Trail Route Planning
    • The Perfect Headlight/Flashlights?
    • Misc Small Stuff
    • Photography/Camera
    • Gear Repair and MYOG
  • Places
    • Flatirons
    • Rocky Mountain National Park
    • Indian Peaks Wilderness
    • Lost Creek Wilderness
    • Gore Range
    • Glacier National Park
    • Wind River Range
    • Utah
  • Plants and Wildlife
  • Contact
  • To Do
  • About