Saturday, March 27, 2010

Big Bend Ranch State Park, Closed Canyon Trail Day 6 prt 2

Howdee all,

March 24

After hiking Cinco Tinajas and Ojito Adentro Trails, we traveled the long dirt road out of this park of Big Bend Ranch State park.

Jeff has had enough of long dirt roads after this one. We had intended to drive the 50 mile dirt road in Big Bend State park, that follows the Rio Grande river…but after this dirt road…..Big Bend Ranch State park_097

   Jeff says we will skip it this time, 25 miles on this one was enoughBig Bend Ranch State park_101

We enjoyed the hikes off of the dirt road..and also took a drive to the Visitor center located further down the road. This seems to be a great destination for those who have horses..

We saw many trucks pulling horse trailers as we left the park. Big Bend Ranch State park_106

    Finally on pavement we headed back to Terlingua stopping at Closed Canyon.

Closed Canyon Trail

1.4 mile round trip

Easy hikeBig Bend Ranch State park_109

Closed canyon is a narrow slot canyonBig Bend Ranch State park_115

The canyon cuts through the Colorado Mesa to the Rio Grande RiverBig Bend Ranch State park_116 You must be aware of surrounding storms as rain can cause flash floods here..Big Bend Ranch State park_117 And there is no where to climb for safetyBig Bend Ranch State park_118 The canyon floor is smooth rock..very slick when wet..Big Bend Ranch State park_119We traveled through several small pouroffs about three feet in height before reachng this 7 foot pouroff. 

We weren't sure if we could climb back out of the pouroff, so Jeff waited behind for me to pull me back up.Big Bend Ranch State park_132This was the end of the road..a few tanks ,tinajas with very steep slick walls.

I was able to climb back up with no problem, so Jeff went down to check out the tanks himself.Big Bend Ranch State park_127I thought this rock formation looked like a face..    Big Bend Ranch State park_139    The sun was lighting up the hillside ..

See the Rio Grande River below..

Mexico the other side..Big Bend Ranch State park_145Oh our way back I spied these way up on a hill..sorry about the fuzzy photo..Baby camera you know..

We found out that they are Barbary sheep..not a native species..and there as been some talk of getting rid of them.Thats all for now..

Only a few days left in Big Bend..Jeff wants to go findBig Bend Ranch State park_155 some migrating birds!

Stay tuned for a few more Big Bend Hikes

I ♥ Big Bend 

……………………………………..

Birds of the day

Curve bill thrasher,House sparrow.House finch
White wing dove,Turkey vulture, Common raven.Black-throated sparrow
Chipping sparrow,Vesper sparrow,Osprey,Black Vulture,Bewick wren
Pyrilloxia,Lesser gold finch,Brewers sparrow,White crowned sparrow
Vesper sparrow,Cactus wren

5 comments:

  1. DustyReinsSaturday, 27 March, 2010

    Oh my! If only I had known you were going to Big Bend State Park. I would have warned you about the tortuous dirt road. Great pics!

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  2. Kerri FarleySaturday, 27 March, 2010

    Super post! I can definitely see the face in the rocks - and when I started looking at it more I found 3 faces :)

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  3. CindySaturday, 27 March, 2010

    Dawn that 9th picture almost looks like the rocks are embers glowing from the inside. Cool

    ReplyDelete
  4. beachgrlSaturday, 27 March, 2010

    Wow, way cool!

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  5. Dawn FineMonday, 05 April, 2010

    Dusty
    oh my..well it was torturous..but worth it..oh and it was Dusty too:)

    Kerri
    oh cool..yeah i see the three faces now..too..

    Cindy
    oh yeah..it does look like glowing embers..thanks for pointing that out..

    beachgrl

    thanks sicksta..

    ReplyDelete

ok what do you really think?????

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