Big Bend National Park is one of my favorite places in Texas. I have been fortunate enough to visit several times during Thanksgiving on trips with the Austin Sierra Club.  Big Bend National Park covers 801,163 acres and is located on Texas- Mexico Boarder at the “bend” in the Rio Grande.  It is a special park as it has a large river (Rio Grande),  a desert (Chihuahuan Desert) , and mountains (Chisos Mountains).  Learn more about the Big Bend National Park on the webiste or read the latest Paisano Newsletter

Some words to know to understand the naming of things there:

Falls vs Pour Off= a pour off is a dry waterfall. A place in a wash or canyon where water, if it were flowing, would “pour over” a ledge to form a waterfall.  A waterfall always has water flowing.

Tinja=is Spanish for “large earthen jar” and refers to a basin-shaped water hole, usually carved into bedrock by natural erosin.

Sierra= means mountain chain in Spanish

Javanlina=  Peccaries, which are native to the Americas, resemble pigs but are not.  While they have poor eye sight, they have an amazing sense of smell and will rip apart a tent to get to anything that they can smell.  (Never leave food in your tent while in Texas unless in a bear canister.) They travel in herds and they seem to travel around more at dusk and at night.  Learn more.

Astrobleme: remains of an ancient meteorite-impact structure on the Earth’s surface, generally in the form of a circular scar of crushed and deformed bedrock. Learn  More

Vista from the Chisos campground

walk to the window

Pinnacles Trail

Oak leaves on the Cattail falls trail

View from South Rim Trail

Pine Canyon Trail

Oak Spring on way to Cattail Falls

Doing the Turkey Asana at the Window

View from South Rim of Chisos

“Giant” Yuccas

Vista from Window Hike

Vista from Lost Mine Trail

Ernst Tinaja

Pour Off on the Cattail Falls Trail

Ernst Tinaja Trail

Grapevine Hills Trail

Sierra Del Carmens with full moon

Javalina

Grapevine Hills Trail

Grapevine Hills Trail

Tents with the Sierra del Carmens in back ground. Sierra= Mountains

Paisano Pete: Giant Roadrunner in Fort Stockton, Texas.

Sierra Del Carmens from Nature Trail (2004)

Astrobleme- what a fun word