Big Bend Under the Sun and Stars
We've noticed that in large National Parks, planning excursions ahead of time is overwhelming. We look at the "Things to do" section on nps.gov but there are so many options. Plus, before we're actually in the Park, we don't yet have our bearings. How far away are all the sights? How long would it take for us to get there? Lots of questions can really only be answered once you're in the Park, map in hand, and driving the Park roads.
Our research into Santa Elena Canyon - one of the most popular spots in the park - yielded less than enthusiastic responses from us because at first glance, this area seemed very far from the entrance to the park. We also mistakenly believed that the canyon hike was very difficult. Not until our first day at the Park did we realize that the long drive was actually a famous scenic road and well worth the couple of hours to get to Santa Elena, and the difficult hike was actually rated as "easy" both NPS and AllTrails. Clearly we missed the memo when we did our pre-visit research, which is exactly why we like to keep an open mind when we visit National Parks. It's good to have a few activities planned, especially if they require reservations, but the rest of the time, we are willing to accept recommendations or explore more spontaneously.
We had just enough daylight after work on a Monday to go drive the Ross Maxwell scenic road down to Santa Elena Canyon. Entering through the gates at 4pm, the ranger had already left for the day. Clearly they were not expecting many crowds, which was perfect for us because we could take the scenic drive at our own pace, stopping at overlooks without needing to worry about filled parking lots. We could easily see why this road is so famous within the Park. We were again captivated by the changing geology as we drove the ups and downs and twists and turns on the outskirts of the Chisos Mountains. The highest point on the drive is the Sotol Vista, named for native Mexican plants that grow in the high desert. This vista offers expansive views of the west side of Big Bend and was a must-stop.
As we drove closer to Santa Elena, the elevation dropped down to river level, and signs began appearing warning of potential floods in wet conditions. While we didn't need to worry about this, we were warned about gnats down near the river. Sure enough, as we pulled into the Santa Elena Canyon parking lot, we were swarmed by thousands of gnats. We braved the swarm and began the trail, hoping that the bugs would clear as we made our way further into the canyon. Only we didn't get far. We made our way to the banks of the Rio Grande and couldn't figure out where the trail was supposed to go. At the canyon, the river splits off into a creek, which we heard we were supposed to cross. We did see a trail sign across the creek, and an earlier sign warned hikers to not cross if the water was too high. Well, it wasn't too high, more about shin-height, but the problem with that is, the bank across the creek was so high that it would be at least a 4ft climb up a straight vertical rock to get up there. Due to our lack of research of this area, we were ill-prepared. Had I known I'd need to ford a river, I would have packed my water shoes. We quickly looked further down the creek to see if there was an easier place to cross, but we couldn't see one. We stood there perplexed for a while, wondering how this was supposedly an easy, popular hike. We tried our best to make a decision on whether we wanted to cross the creek anyway, but the gnats were so bad we could barely stand still to finalize our choice. We decided to turn back. Left totally confused, I looked up the Santa Elena Canyon trail once I was back on WIFI. The reviews cleared nothing up. Many reviewers said that even after crossing the creek, the climb into the canyon was insanely difficult. Some said there were stairs, others said it was a straight scramble. Reviewers' pictures all looked different too, almost as though they were taking different trails. So we have no idea what would have awaited us across the creek, and while it would have been amazing to go into the canyon, we know we'll see many more canyons in our future, and this one was best left behind.
I did brave the gnats for a couple of minutes to take some photos of the canyon, though. The sun was in the perfect spot, right between the canyon walls. Setting aside the disappointment from bugs and trail confusion, this really is a stunning vista. The canyon walls are 1500 feet high, and watching the river flow between them, knowing that that very flow is running along an international border, is really a sight to behold.
We wished we could have capped our scenic drive with a hike, but we were happy to have captured so many photos that are emblematic of Big Bend's beauty. We took our time driving back along Ross Maxwell Drive and caught the sun setting over one of the canyons.
You'll notice in the photos from our first two days at Big Bend that the skies were fairly cloudy. We were perfectly fine with this during our daytime explorations because when the sun is out, even in the winter, it can heat up the desert, and between the heat and dry air, it's tough to stay adequately hydrated. I also embraced the cloud cover because bright sunshine is not optimal lighting for photos. We were waiting patiently for a clear day, though, because we wanted to embrace Big Bend's best nighttime activity: stargazing! Big Bend officially became an International Dark Sky Park in 2012 and boasts the darkest skies of any of the Dark Sky Parks due to its low air pollution from its remote location. It's also the largest International Dark Sky Association certified location in the world.
We battled clouds and wind for a few days before we could finally take a trip to the park at night. We made sure to arrive before sunset so we could scout out a place for night sky photos, ideally with a unique foreground and clear view of the sky behind it. The foreground is hardly an issue here; all the uniquely shaped rocks and mountains offer some amazing contour in photos. We also wanted a spot that was free from light, but not so deep in the park that we'd struggle to get back out when we finished. We scouted out Chisos Basin Rd, a road we had yet to drive. The end of the road houses a campground and lodge, so that was a big no for getting darkness, but the earlier parts of the road had great pull-offs where I could set up my cameras.
I will say, this road was scenic in the daylight too, and has exactly what we love about Big Bend: unique ecology and topography! In most places in Big Bend, trees cannot survive, but here, the elevation must be high enough and the area between the mountains cool enough that trees lined the road and grew on the mountainsides. We weren't expecting it! This is probably also why the rangers warn of bears and mountain lions specifically in this section of the park. And we were out there in the pitch darkness! Yikes!
My skills and camera equipment can only do so much with astrophotography, so these photos do not do the sky justice. We were able to see so many more stars than anywhere we had ever been and had clear views of Orion (and could even see his sword!), the Big and Little Dippers, and Sirius, to the south, east, and north, and the rise and set of Venus and Jupiter to the west. I spent a lot of time trying to capture Jupiter over one of the buttes. We lucked out with some cell service in this area, rare for Big Bend, but took advantage of our Sky Walk apps to map out all the constellations. We even spotted some satellites and shooting stars! The moon was a waning crescent that had already set in the afternoon, so we didn't need to worry about its brightness - very important for optimal stargazing and astrophotography. Given my old equipment and my lack of practice, I'm glad I was able to capture what I did, but this was more for the experience anyway. Visiting a National Park at night gives us a whole new outlook on the area.
I would highly recommend the Sky Walk 2 app for Android if you're interested in stargazing or astronomy.
This is what our stargazing area looks like in the daytime (and you'll see in the last photo why I don't like capturing photos in bright sunlight):
And here's what I was able to capture at night...
The southeast sky, including Orion and Sirius (the brightest dot):
The Big Dipper in the northern sky:
Jupiter above the butte in the western sky...
...and Jupiter's glow after setting behind the butte:
Our decision to stay fairly close to the road meant that we did battle car headlights occasionally, but I used them to paint light on some of the photographs.
We had seen Big Bend from the roads, the trails, and from under the stars, but there was one more vantage point we wanted to capture before we left: Big Bend by boat! We saved our most unique excursion for last, and we most definitely found ourselves in new waters. That story's coming up in the next post!