Big Bend National Park trip
One of the many perks of teaching at and attending MICDS is
the two-weeks spring break. Two weeks is
an amazing length of time: one week to get things done and one week to
vacation. It’s glorious. The Parkway District has the standard one
week vacation, which overlapped with the MICDS one for the second week.
Samantha has chaperoned a Habitat for Humanity service trip in
Houston, TX, for about 10 years now and this year was her last one. We decided to match up her last Houston trip
with a spring break trip to Big Bend National Park in southern Texas. Here is the play-by-play of our adventures.
Friday
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Get up insanely early and hit the road. Eric, Lola, and Raina played passenger while
Krystal drove to Little Rock, Arkansas.
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Watched the sunrise and listened to The Name of the Wind by Patrick
Rothfuss.
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Went to Central High School National Park, which
memorializes white supremacy and racism and incredible bravery and courage of
the Little Rock 9.
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Had lunch at Chipotle, a trusted restaurant with
vegetarian fare.
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More importantly, had lunch with Wilson Kanaday
and his daughter Grace. Wilson and Eric
were childhood best friends and could talk sports, politics, life for hours on
end. It was wonderful to reconnect with
him and to meet Grace.
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Back on state roads through Arkansas and then
through Texas. This section of Texas
felt a lot like driving through inland South Carolina to get to the coast. We saw multiple “Blue Lives Matter” flags on
trucks, which was surprising overall.
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We stopped through a Border checkpoint or two
and, although we had passports ready to show, our pale skin was the only pass
we really needed. Oh, white privilege,
we see you everywhere.
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Dave Molfese graciously offered his home for the
overnight stay and the Whomptons descended.
Samantha arrived first – she was already in Houston – and the rest of us
got there around 7:30 p.m. It’s always
surprising to realize that time passes since college – Dave got to meet Raina and
Lola and we got to meet his wife Val and son Carter. Even so, time doesn’t change very much and it
was easy to talk about everything and nothing that night.
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Today, 800 miles and 12.5 hours of driving done.
Saturday
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Up and at them!
Dave, Samantha, Krystal, Raina, and dog Maple had a nice morning walk in
the neighborhood. One household had up a
“In this house…” yard sign, similar to the one we have in our own yard. They, however, had crossed out the word “black”
and replaced it with “all lives matter.”
I cursed them and shook our heads.
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The walk was followed by a bountiful breakfast
of pancakes, kolaches, and fruit. The
Molfese-Bomben family were gracious hosts and it was lovely to spend the
morning with them.
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Samantha had to return the rental car, so we
followed her to the airport drop-off. Construction
traffic made the Houston drivers do crazy things, and we were grateful to get
there safely. With all five Whomptons
under the same van roof, we set off west.
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Lunch was in San Marcos at a Mexican restaurant. They served deep fried stuffed avocado, which
was intriguing enough that three people ordered it. It was cheesy, greasy, and tasty.
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More driving, more Name of the Wind, more Texas, more Border Patrol.
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Saw coyotes and javelinas.
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We reached our lay-over destination of
Sanderson, TX, and the Budget Inn.
Sanderson used to be a bustling ranch town but, after the tax support
fell out and a huge flood wiped out the town, not much was left. We went for a walk through town to stretch
our legs and everyone got their last shower in before the camping trip
officially began.
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Today, 500 miles and 8 hours of driving done.
Sunday
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After a bagel breakfast, we finished the last
bit of driving to reach Big Bend National Park, roughly 100 miles and 1.5 hours.
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Arrived at Persimmon Gap Visitors Center just as
it opened. Got our Junior Ranger
booklets and excitedly set out for our adventures in desert, river, and
mountains! In addition to the Junior
Ranger badge, we could do different hikes and earn patches.
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Did a desert hike to Dog Canyon, five miles
round-trip. WOW, it’s hot in the
desert! Everything’s brown and we marveled
at all the desert cacti and lack of trees. Also, this was our first hike that used cairns
to mark the correct trail; we would have been senselessly lost without them on
the way back.
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Explored the Dinosaur Fossil exhibit and had the
traditional peanut butter sandwich lunch.
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At this point, we were overwhelmed by the sun
and the heat and were relieved to stop at Panther Junction Visitor Center for a
brief air-conditioned break. Did the
Panther Path hike (1/2 mile) and earned our first patch.
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Hit the road again, exceeded the speed limit too
much, and got sirened by the Border Patrol.
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Decided to hit the Rio Grande Visitor Center too
– which hardly had anything – and then set up our campsite at the Rio Grande
Campground.
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There’s an official border crossing to
Boquillas, Mexico, and it’s only open on certain days. Sunday was one of those days so we trekked
over with our passports so we could cross (or, more accurately, so we could get
back in). Decided against crossing the
river and walking the mile into Mexico mostly because it was SO HOT! 95 degrees hurts badly when you’re used to 45
degrees.
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Instead did the 1.5 miles round-trip hike to
Boquillas Canyon, where everyone splashed in the river a little bit and Lola
splashed a lot.
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Returned back to the campsite. Made dinner of
pasta with white beans and fire roasted tomatoes. Struggled to find where we
had packed everything because Raina had supervised the packing and she was the
only person who knew where everything was.
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Saw roadrunners!
And a javelina on the campground!
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After dinner, we wanted to do another hike but
they had closed the area so we read books, played Anomia, and went to sleep.
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No rainfly on the tent – we were in the desert
after all – and we enjoyed whatever breeze was offered. Temperatures dropped from 95 to about 50
overnight, and the stars were glorious.
Monday
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Gorgeous views of the stars until about 7 a.m.
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Traditional camping breakfast of oatmeal and all
the toppings.
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We drove EVERYWHERE! From Rio Grande campground to Panther
Junction to Maverick Junction to Old Maverick Road (BIG mistake to try this
gravel road, and we retreated quickly) to Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. The Maxwell scenic drive had stunning views
of the Chisos Mountains and we gaped at them appropriately.
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Did the Tuff Canyon Hike (about a mile) and
enjoyed the shade.
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Castolon Visitors Center was next and it had
lots of historic things to see.
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Back up the Scenic Drive to Maverick Junction to
outside the park to Study Butte and Terlingua.
(Eric constantly called it Study Butt to great amusement.) We were going floating!
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Peanut butter lunch in the parking lot and got
ready for the float trip.
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Doug and Ernesto of Big Bend River Tours safely
saw us through the Rio Grande trip.
Eric, Lola, and Krystal were in one canoe; Samantha and Raina in the
other. We had wind at our backs,
stunning views of the river and rocks, sighted many turkey vultures and
turtles, and a cloudy day. Perfect.
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The Class 2 rapids were a challenge – how do you
“lean into the rocks!” when there are rocks everywhere?! – but we all made it
through without flipping canoes.
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They provided elaborate snacks at a break and we
splashed in the river some more. It was
COLD water, and noticeably cooler than the day before at Boquillas Canyon. The snacks were set up on the Mexican side
and Lola was the only person to walk completely across the river to reach the
American side.
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We planned to have dinner “in town” that night
but there’s not much in Study Butte or Terlingua. We chose La Kiva restaurant because 1. It came
recommended, 2. We could find it, and 3. They sat us immediately rather than
the hour wait expected at the Starlight Diner.
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Drove the 1.5 hours trek back to Rio Grande
campsite. Temperatures hit 104 at the
campground and we felt every bit of that in the tent. A baby kept crying nearby and there were
crazy gusts of wind that flattened our dome tent and it was so hot – no one got
a good night’s sleep.
Tuesday
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Time to say goodbye to this campsite. We packed up in record time, tossed down a
granola bar for breakfast, and headed over to the Rio Grande Scenic Nature
Trail (about a mile). We watched the sun
rise over the mountain and appreciated the luscious green ribbon surrounding
the river.
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The temperature had dropped dramatically – the wind
storm brought cooler temperatures but not rain – so we tried longer hikes. Did the Hot Springs Canyon Rim hike (6 miles)
and saw pictographs, petrographs, and a hot spring hot tub. Earned second patch.
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We saw about 40 misting drops of rain. (It hasn’t rained at Big Bend since August.)
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We finished the Junior Ranger booklets in time
for the last Visitors Center: Chisos Mountains.
We purposefully did everything else in the park before heading into the
mountains themselves so that we could concentrate attention there once we
arrived. Samantha, Krystal, and Lola
became Junior Rangers and collected their two patches.
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Ran into Ann Frey, a MICDS colleague, at the
Visitors Center. What a surprise!
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Did the Lost Mine trail (about 5 miles), which
was our first one in the “strenuous” category for this trip. Lola struggled and threw a tantrum about ½ mile
up the trail. We called her on it and
she was much better afterwards. The top provided
a 360 degrees view of the Chisos mountains.
So beautiful.
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Back at the campsite, Lola face-planted and fell
asleep before dinner. Delighted in black
beans, rice, and salsa for dinner. Raina
and Lola stayed behind to read books, while the adults did the Window Trail at
sunset.
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The adults debated the remaining hikes and how
Lola had responded to the one today. We wanted
to do the #1 rated hike to the highest point in the Chisos and earn the third
patch and waffled about when would be best to do it. We finally decided that Wednesday would be
the day.
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The temperature was in 60s when we went to bed,
so the rain fly went on and we snuggled into our sleeping bags.
Wednesday
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The stars were even more spectacular in the
mountain basin – so much that Krystal and Samantha pulled out the camp chairs
and stared at them for a while in the early morning.
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Oatmeal for breakfast, pack up all the water we
can, prepare lunch and snacks, grab appropriate layers, shove everything into
the packs, and gear up. We were
attempting the Emory Peak hike – 10.6 miles, 7825 feet high, a total climb of
2400 feet in elevation. The hike was
hard and long and we were immensely grateful for the chemical toilet and bear
boxes about 3.5 miles in. We could leave
our packs behind for the final ascent!
We snacked on trail mix, laughed at the approach of the Mexican Jays,
topped off each person’s water bottle, and got back on the trail.
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The Pinnacles and South Rim Hikes comprised the first
part and about half the elevation; the Emory Peak hike (the last 1.5 miles) was
steep, strenuous, and rocky. The final
portion included bouldering up the rock face to the very top, which Krystal,
Lola, Samantha, and Raina accomplished.
The view from up top saw out more than 240 miles in each direction. Wow.
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Going down was scarier than getting up there,
but we all managed to do it successfully.
We got back to the potty and bear boxes, ate our lunch, grabbed our
packs, and jauntily headed down the mountain to collect our Emory Peak patches.
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The park ranger told us to allocate 9 hours for
the hike and we finished it in 5. What
to do for the rest of the day? We
enjoyed the gorgeous weather at the campsite, lounged around and read for a
while, and had gado-gado pasta for dinner.
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The weather was turning and wind gusts were insane. They flattened our tent multiple times and
pulled up one of tent stakes. We had to
roll down all the windows to create more air flow!
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Going a little stir-crazy, we decided to do the
Chisos Basin hike. The Ranger told us it
would be all downhill if we took the path clockwise; the starting uphills said
otherwise and our legs screamed at us for doing another climb. Eventually it flattened out and descended,
and we enjoyed the 2 miles stretch before bed.
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We played Anomia again, tied down the windows
against the wind, and tried to sleep through the storm. The moon was almost full and, after it moved
down below the mountains, we had a gorgeous view of the stars.
Thursday
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Eric turned 40!
Happy birthday, Eric! He decided
he’d like to shower for his birthday, so we packed up our campsite and loaded
up the van. We’d do one more hike and
then head out of Big Bend. But first, of
course, was a last view of the stars.
(The stars were out and visible until about 7:30 a.m. each day and were
more numerous than I’d ever seen before.
Simply breathtaking.)
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The Ranger recommended the Balanced Rock hike;
it was relatively short and is a popular one due to the rock formations. We envisioned the 2 mile hike taking no more
than an hour and then we’d be on our way.
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After driving 6 miles on an unpleasant gravel
road (which included a vulture farm) we realized our timing plan would need to
be revised. We reached the trailhead and
started out. The hike was a nice close
to our time in Big Bend: lots of sun, cacti, rocks, sand, and bouldering. We trekked the 6 miles back much more
aggressively, reached Panther Junction in time for lunch and last potty breaks,
and then set out.
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The Name
of the Wind saw us through Texas. At
one point we got caught in a crazy traffic jam and watched an accident occur
literally right in front of us, as a vehicle cut off a semi-truck and got
clipped on the tail-end. Lots of screamed profanity as a result there. Otherwise, this stretch of Texas had lots of
oil fields and not much else to see.
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Dinner was at a not-so-great Mexican
restaurant. Most folks had the avocado
enchiladas, which sounded fantastic but were actually mediocre. Oh well.
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We made it to Wichita Falls, right at the Texas
- Oklahoma border, and rejoiced when the Quality Inn agreed to accommodate us
all in a spacious room with a jacuzzi tub and morning breakfast for a ridiculously
inexpensive rate. The first shower after
a long camping trip is so glorious, and this one did not disappoint. Everyone showered and then tucked into
bed.
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Today’s trip:
540 miles and 8.5 hours.
Friday
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We loaded up on carbs at the breakfast buffet,
shoved all our belongings back in the van, and set out for Saint Louis. After multiple hours of driving we determined
that Oklahoma does not have rest areas. They,
however, do collect a lot of tolls; we stopped 5 times and gave them $15 in
all. We decided to have lunch in Missouri rather
than Oklahoma and we pushed on to Joplin.
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Breaking our Mexican restaurant trend, we opted
for Kinnaree Thai and were so glad we did.
The food was delicious and plentiful.
Our local Thai place does a 1 – 5 rating for spice and so did Kinnaree,
so we used the same numbers as here in Saint Louis. That was a mistake, as a Level 2 easily
matched up to a Level 4 in Saint Louis, and some of us found that to be too
much spice. We refused to be defeated
though and we all finished our delectable meals.
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Next up was the George Washington Carver
National Park. Carver was a national hero
and we learned lots about him. We also
became Junior Rangers again. Yay, George
Washington Carver! Yay, us! One of the things I noticed at the museum is
there’s no mention of Carver linked to anyone romantically, which made me
wonder whether Carver was gay. The
internet seems to think so and I wonder if that aspect of his life will ever be
added to the museum.
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The Name
of the Wind finished after 23 hours.
We added in 3 hours of the Decemberists, and then the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s
Spotify playlists. No one knew any of
the songs on the 00’s so we settled back into the 90’s to finish the drive.
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Lola and Raina talked Mistborn for roughly 4 hours.
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We approached Rolla, MO, around dinner time, so
we took the reasoned and logical approach of eating at “A Slice of Pie.” Samantha had a chicken-mushroom pot-pie and
everyone else had dessert for dinner. The
Tollhouse pie was as good as I remembered.
Oh goodness, if Raina chooses to attend college in Rolla she could eat
pie all the time! Or better for us, she
could work there and learn how to make all the pies! We continue to hope.
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The Whomptons pulled into the driveway around 8
p.m. after 630 miles and 9 hours of driving.
We celebrated by unloading, going to the store to get milk, picking up
Keyboard from Karen and Chris’s, showering, and sleeping in our own beds. A lovely vacation overall.
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