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BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK - DAY 5

Today we are heading back toward the northeastern entrance of Big Bend National Park. It is by far the most remote region of the park.

We’ll be exploring the Dagger Flats Auto Trail in the Chihuahuan Desert. We later learned we were about a month too early in the season to experience all of the blooms on the various cacti along the trail.

Later we explored the outdoor Fossil Discovery Exhibit that was erected a short distance from the main road.

The day was becoming very overcast and wasn’t making the task of taking good photos easy, so we decided to explore a new region of the park. Located just about dead center in the park is the Chisos Basin Mountains.

Chisos Basin is located about six miles up a winding and twisting road from the main park highway where you’ll find the Chisos Lodge and Restaurant. There is also a small campground up on the mountain but trailers over 20 feet or RVs over 24 feet are not recommended to make the trip up the mountain due to the narrow roads and tight switchbacks.

DAY 5

These are Torrey Yucca and are still sporting blooms from last season.
Here is a close up, but all the flowers are dried and gone.
The Torrey Yucca were everywhere along the drive.
That layer of different, more dense rock near the top of the mountain is called a "sill".
More varieties of the yucca plant.
This is what the roadway looked like all along the Dagger Flats Auto Trail.
All seven miles of it.
There were a half dozen of these exhibits on the desert floor. The fact and question was printed on one side and the answer was on the reverse.
Kind of scary that this guy used to roam the prehistoric ocean floors around here.
This guys bite could do some serious damage.
An example of petrified wood found in the desert.
The entire exhibit is solar powered.
The view from up on the hill gave the perspective of what the larger dinosaurs viewpoint was.
This is where the speed limit drops from 45MPH to 35MPH and is the beginning of the tight hairpin turns and steep inclines.
It's also where we leave the desert environment and start seeing actual trees instead of bushes.
You have to be prepared for what ever is coming from around the corner.
There are several strenuous hiking trails in the Chisos Basin.
When the sign says 10MPH they mean it.
This is the beginning of a 90° turn, immediately following by another 90° turn in the opposite direction with a steep downhill in between.
Finally at the top of the mountain we score an awesome lunchtime view from Chisos Basin Lodge restaurant. No that background is not Photoshopped in!
This view is referred to as "The Window".
Tricia did the short hike on the Window View Trail while I was uploading a blogpost for you all.
This is an agave. They will look like this for decades, then bloom and die.
This is the Cholla Cactus.
Sunset. Time to start heading back to camp.
The end to another wonderful day in Big Bend National Park.

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