It is Sunday morning and we are off by 9 AM, right on schedule. Ever since we've lived in the Southwest, and that's been over 30 years, we've talked about going to Big Bend National Park. Some of our friends have insisted that it's something that must be done. We know that National Parks are great paces to bike and our recent trips through Yellowstone and on to Alaska have made us comfortable biking almost anywhere. So, off we go!
Streets and Trips has plotted our course but, really, there are very few choices. We dislike traveling on the Interstates but in this case, covering miles rapidly makes I-10 the only way to travel, at least as far as Van Horn.
After the rush of El Paso and the boredom of I-10, we are glad to turn off onto US 90 at Van Horn. Since it is 539 miles from Silver City to our destination in Big Bend we decide to make it a 374 mile day and stop at Davis Mountain State Park. Streets and Trips has us going to Marfa then back north on Texas 17 to Fort Davis.
Another reason for staying at Davis Mountain State Park is it's proximity to the McDonald Observatory. Over the years of listening to NPR stations we've enjoyed Star Date spots produced by the University of Texas in Austin and observatory staff. We will bike TX 118 to the observatory and take a tour.
So as a warm-up, we ride the Skyline Drive Road in the park. It's probably only 4 miles one-way, but has several very steep pitches. At the top we can see telescope buildings at the observatory.
The ride turns out to be everything we like, great road, light traffic, good scenery, and a good long climb. We lock up our bikes at the visitor center and gladly board the bus to tour the scopes.
The first building that we visit is the 2.7 meter, Harlan J. Smith telescope. This is a big piece of equipment. The 107 inch diameter primary mirror is mounted in a 12 foot diameter by 32 foot long tube weighing over 190 tons. The dome is 76 feet in diameter and weighs 435 tons. It's construction was completed in 1968. We are given a detailed explanation of how the instrument is used by our expert guide. He also demonstrates how the scope and dome is moved. We don't stay too long as the interior is cooled to match the anticipated evening temperature, 52 degrees F.
Next we go over to the Hobby-Eberly Telescope on an adjacent mountain top. From the ground it's scale is difficult to absorb. From the inside, it's ever harder as all that you can see is a massive support structure of steel girders and braces.
The HET was designed and constructed with a unique objective: to gather a very large amount of light, specifically for spectroscopy, at extremely low cost.
A fixed elevation-axis design, based on the radio telescope at Arecibo, and an innovative system for tracking stars, contributed to an 80% reduction in initial costs compared to optical telescopes of similar size. The primary mirror of the HET is the largest yet constructed, at 11.1 x 9.8 meters. At any given time during observations, only a portion of the mirror is utilized. The HET's 9.2 meter effective aperture makes it currently the world's fourth largest optical telescope.
After a fast downhill ride back to our camp a Davis Mountain State Park and a perfectly quiet night we resume our trip to Big Bend the next morning by travelling down TX 118 through Alpine.
A short detour takes us to the ghost town of Terlingua, once a bustling mercury mining town.
Cottonwood campground is our first destination in Big Bend, 537 miles from our home in Silver City. The campground is just as we like them; small sites, no "hook-ups", no generators allowed, and filled with friendly like-minded campers. It even has a resident pair of great-horned owls who softly hoot their contentment at night.
Our objective the next day is to float our kayak up the Rio Grande river into Santa Elena Canyon and back. On Wednesday we obtain a permit at the Castolon ranger station and set out.
The float upstream turns out to be part float, part walk as we encounter numerous sand bars that cannot quite be floated over. Downstream is much better, with a higher speed we can "shoot through" the shallows over the bars. We take 2 1/2 hours to go up some 3 miles but only 1 1/2 hours for the return.
We had arranged to meet 2 other couples from the Silver City area here at Cottonwood to share some bicycling. So after sitting out a wet Thursday all 6 of us headed out on the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive on Friday. We rode some 44 miles round trip through beautiful desert landscapes with great climbs and again, little traffic.
Saturday we drove over to the Rio Grande Village campground at the east side of the park. The campground was not quite as primitive as the Cottonwood Campground as larger RV's and their generators were allowed. However it was inhabited by roadrunners, and we enjoyed watching them hunt around our campsite.
After we set up camp. we did an 8 mile hike along the Rio Grande over to the Langford Hot Springs. I guess that we should have expected this place would be very crowded.
On Sunday, we rode up to Panther Junction and back. Again a great way to appreciate this big country with the Chisos Mountains always on the horizon.
Monday morning we moved into the Chisos Mountains at The Basin Campground. The morning rain dissipated allowing us to hike to The Window.
The next morning all of the mountain tops around us were shrouded in fog and clouds.
Tuesday we left the Park and headed back to the Davis Mountains. We had learned of a "star party" to be held at the McDonald Observatory on Tuesday night and felt that this would be perfect to top off our trip to Big Bend.
The star party was very professionally done starting with a tour of the night sky. The presenter pointed out the visible constellations and re-acquainted us with our place in the solar system, the Milky-Way Galaxy, and the universe. Feeling small misses the point, feeling insignificant is more like it. But feeling insignificant doesn't diminish the wonder and appreciation of seeing the stars.
Before the Star Party we located a roadside picnic area 9 miles north of the observatory near the Nature Conservatory Madera Canyon trail head. It was a perfect boon dock for the night even though the temperature dropped into the low 20's. Being just off of TX 118 and only 341 miles from home we will probably use it again for future Big Bend trips.
There will be future trips to Big Bend. In our 7 days there we saw a lot but also learned of many areas for future explorations.
We will be back.
Until our next trip....
Jim
