Eat my dust! Full speed ahead in Big Bend National Park
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As we drove into the Big Bend region on US 90, we knew we were in for a very scenic week. Already the topography was giving us one gift after the next. We passed through canyons, wove between mountains, and saw sprawling deserts lined with prickly pear cacti. We couldn't wait to see what the National Park had in store, and the very next day after our arrival, we were heading in to seek adventure and buy our 11th National Park pin.
We were really happy to have Clyde for this National Park trip because so many of the roads are unpaved and have become pretty rugged due to rains and high winds. Many of the roads specify that only high clearance, 4x4 vehicles are allowed. We saw a few brave souls navigating their sedans down these roads, but we wouldn't recommend it. Our first experience with one of these roads was Grapevine Hills. We drove this road to get to the trailhead of our first hike, Grapevine Hills Trail to Balanced Rock. We had to take the road very slowly, but if Clyde can't handle it, no vehicle can! The views on the way in were extraordinary, and we even saw a few deer!
The Grapevine Hills to Balanced Rock hike is 2 miles of mostly flat, dirt trails, with a rocky climb at the end. It's rated moderate, but we found the hike easy overall, which we were happy about. We wanted this hike to be an introduction to Big Bend, where we could really take in our surroundings without feeling like we needed to focus too much on our footing. Even just on this hike alone, we saw such variety in rock formations and plant life. It was our first real hike in a desert environment, and there is something so magical about seeing the greens and purples of prickly pears dotting the brown landscape with color. Cacti truly are the embodiment of "bloom where you're planted," but even more, they serve as nurse plants and nourishment for species that wouldn't otherwise be able to survive in a harsh climate.
To gain a deeper appreciation for Big Bend, we should tell you a little about how this land was formed. We were so intrigued by how different the landscapes changed from one part of the park to the next. Even the mountains on one side of the road looked different from the mountains on the other side. We spent the next few days learning why this was the case. In a nutshell, over the past 500 million years, this land had gone through many geological changes. It's been underwater, above water, pushed into various formations from streams, rivers, and erosion, and even has volcanic mountains whose eruptions helped form the landscape tens of millions of years ago. Since then, the changes over time are mainly due to rain and wind. Driving through the park is like driving through a history book, with every turn of our wheel a turn of the page, showcasing another time period in the development of this land's terrain and geology.
Our hike led us through desert trails, where we saw the cacti if we looked down, and when we looked up, were mesmerized by volcanic rock formations that had been formed by erosion over many, many years. Balanced Rock, the crown jewel of the hike, is perched at the end of our uphill scramble. The rock sits precariously on its mushroom-shaped base, and while it may look like it's about to tumble at any minute, it's been there for millions of years. If that's not enough, we had distant views of mountains, shadowed in blue and purple hues under the cloudy sky.
We couldn't wait to learn more about the geology of this area, and so after our hike we drove over to the Fossil Discovery Exhibit. The exhibit discusses how Big Bend is one of the best places in North America to study long-term evolution because the rocks helped to preserve fossils from an immense variety of creatures over the span of 130 million years, from ancient sea creatures, to dinosaurs, to early mammals. The exhibit also gave detailed outlines of the landscape changes over the course of Big Bend's history, including which species would have been seen during each era.
Our final excursion of day 1 was going to be an ebike ride on one of the back roads, but after Grapevine Hills Road, we thought we'd rather be safe and 4-wheel-drive it in the truck. We took a drive down Paint Gap Road, which wasn't the most scenic in wintertime, but we hear that the yucca blooms in the spring are beautiful. We navigated Clyde over the bumps and ruts, until we had decided that we had had enough. After all, Clyde is half of our entire means of living these days. We need to make sure we don't cause any damage or blow out a tire when we're miles from the nearest anything. But, having the 4x4 capability without needing to even think about it is useful. We like the feeling of adventure we get when we're able to go down roads that very few try, and even fewer succeed!
It was an eye-opening introduction to Big Bend that piqued our interest even further. We made plans to return as soon as we finished work the next day. This time, we'd be going to a whole different part of the park, which meant whole new scenery.