Beauty at Sunset and Again in the Morning

Last evening Jack, Bud and I took the nature trail in the Rio Grande Village Campground to an overlook to watch the sunset. The trail starts through a marsh.

Yes, a marsh in the desert.

Looking back you can see that the marsh is substantial.

From up on the overlook you can see the band of green the river makes through here. A river through the desert is a precious thing.

We made it up not long before sunset.

Good night, sun.

We walked back in the twilight,

while the lingering light painted the clouds.

This morning we all (including Matey) drove up to the Chisos Basin. I took this picture of that slot canyon from the back seat of the Ram.

There is a campground you can barely see here.

And a developed area with a lodge and restaurant,

several motel type buildings of rooms,

a visitor center and store,

and parking lots, all surrounded by the peaks of the Chisos Mountains.

There are bears and mountain lions in the Chisos Mountains, but we only saw some deer.

It was still cool so we left Matey in the truck. Bud walked the short loop of the Window View Trail and then went back to walk Matey and stay with him while Jack and I hiked the Window Trail.

Our hike was two and three quarters miles down to that “V” in the mountains circling the basin, then two and three quarters miles back up.

About half of it was a gradual slope, an easy walk while the sun gave a light show on the mountain walls.

After almost two miles we came to Oak Creek Canyon.

The start of the descent through the canyon was on a smooth track through rising rock walls.

There were interesting rocks and

beautiful formations.

The going got gradually more rugged.

I was glad there were steps built around the difficult parts of the stream bed.

Even the steps took some concentration to navigate.

In the end we came to the narrow slot where Oak Creek…

pours out of the mountains to the desert below.

We wouldn’t be here if the creek was running.

And this was as close as I would go, because even dry these rocks were slick.

That’s a close enough look for me.

Then it was back up,

scrambling where we had to,

through the shaded canyon…

with its lovely flowers.

Then we came out of the canyon to just under two miles of steady climbing in the hot sun. The whole time we were walking up we passed people walking down. I felt bad for the folks just starting at close to eleven as we ended our hike. It was getting hot! Our timing was great as we were alone at the Window; all those who followed us would have to share the space.

When we got back to Bud and Matey we went and got lunch at a food truck and ate on the shaded terrace of the lodge,

where we could look back across the basin to the notch in the mountains we’d just visited.

Tomorrow we leave this unique, remarkable and beautiful place. I just hope it is preserved for others to discover.