Thursday, February 15 – We hiked our last trail here in Big Bend National Park this morning. The weather report called for high temperatures this afternoon, so we hit the trail a little earlier this morning planning to be out of the hot afternoon sun. It did reach temperatures in the low 90's by late afternoon, but we were home relaxing. It didn't feel near that hot. It's a “dry” heat, you know!
Sunrise greeted us before our hike.
We were hiking the Chimneys Trail this morning. The "chimneys" have always been an important landmark in Big Bend. It is rated moderate, but it was fairly easy in our opinion. It is a flat scenic desert trail to rock formations of an eroded dike.
The trail.
Through a wash.
More beautiful scenery on today’s hike.
We love seeing the “purple” or “mauve” prickle pear cacti.
We made it.
As we hiked around the chimneys, we discovered a delicate arch. What a nice surprise.
There are numerous Native American pictographs in one of the sheltered areas and awesome rock formations.
There is no shade so take plenty of water if hot weather is predicted. We traveled 5.21 miles with 14,868 steps with only 373 change in elevation. If you want to crawl around the mountain, you will have to do some rock scrambling at the end of the trail.
We enjoyed this hike, especially climbing around the mountain at the end of the trail to check out the pictographs and to take numerous pictures. We sat on some boulders and enjoyed a water break and a snack before returning to the trail head. As customary, we saw no one at the time spent on the mountain but did cross paths with three or four couples on our return hike.
We have one more day here in Terlingua, Texas, and Big Bend National Park. Could a ghost town be in our future? You'll have to come back and see.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
