Big Bend National Park, Texas

It took us all morning to drive from Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico to Big Bend, Texas.

Big Bend is a very large National Park in southwestern Texas. At first we were very overwhelmed with how much there is to do at this park. But after setting up at the campground, Jason and I decided to spend the rest of the day on the scenic drive though the mountains and desert.  

Throughout the drive, we were able to stop along several turnouts and overlooks, as well as do a few short walks through the desert. The most impressive part is when we drove to a small beach on the Rio Grande, where we skipped rocks across the river into Mexico.
 

After we drove back to the campground, I immediately set up my tripod (facing the mountains). Although not as impressive as Death Valley, Jason and I were able to watch the moon rise above the mountains.

We decided to see the rest of the park the next day. When we awoke, we decided to take a short hike up to the top of a close by mountain. Since we were in bear and mountain lion country, we had to extra prepared for any interactions with wildlife (for me this included having my camera ready). Since  Big Bend has a lot of wildlife roaming around.

We spent the rest of the day hiking around the desert, tracking animal prints, and watching Mexicans ride across the border.

With beautiful weather, temperatures reached mid-90’s, it was a perfect day for exploring the park.

After freshening up, we decided to hangout at the campground around dinner time. We’ve been gone for over two months and it was the first time I was able to hang my hammock.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Arriving at Carlsbad Caverns in the morning, Jason and I were able to spend the whole day walking down nature path down into the cave to and through the big rooms. 

There are two ways to reach the big room at the base of the cave. Within one minute, an elevator ride takes visitors up and down 700 ft. Jason and I decided to take the scenic nature walk down to the big room. On average most visitors reach the big room in an hour. We took some more time, stopping to take hundreds of long exposure shots of the stalagmites and stalactites.

The big room is the size of 15 football fields in length. By the time I had reached the half way point there was only an hour left until they close. After speaking to a ranger, I decided to take the short cut. Even though I would miss walking through half of the cave, by taking the short cut I would have more time to take photos. 

The last hour went by too quickly, with a lot left to explore and photograph the lights were being turned off behind me as the ranger began collecting up the last groups of visitors, including me. 

Pleading with the ranger to let me have just five extra minutes didn’t work. So I began sprinting ahead as a group of tourists tried there best to buy me some time. 

It ended up being a group of about 15 of us trying to hold up the ranger just to spend a few more minutes in the cave. We, of course, didn’t succeed and sooner than later the annoyed ranger turned off all of the lights and brought us up the elevator.