December 29, 2024

Last post of 2024. 

This past week we headed west on 170 past Lajitas to explore what was a native sleeping area in the Big Bend State Park (not to be confused with the Big Bend National Park) about 40 miles from Study Butte.



Each hole is a sleeping area in the rock.


 Robin, the RV Park owners mother, was our tour guide. She had visited the area, spending quite a bit of time with her daughter exploring the area and was a wealth of information. In walking around the area and climbing up the rocks you could see the areas where the natives carved out the rock for sleeping quarters. 





 There were 50-100 of these areas carved into the rock from ground level up the hill side. There was still an adobe structure on site as you can see from the pictures. When we left the area, a dirt road leading back toward the mountains called to me so I had to explore. It went back for a mile or so, winding its way to the edge of the mountain. It looks like an area that we may want to hike during our stay.  



Robin was headed back home to Georgia right after Christmas but did put us on to another area we could hike. It was in a wash (area washed out by summer rains) about 7 miles from Study Butte. So on Friday this week we drove to the wash, pulled out our hiking sticks and headed down the wash. About a mile in was a miners tunnel going back about 100 feet and then dead ended. Not sure why they stopped digging. 

Left the Jeep at the start of the wash.

Miners dig.

Diane is in the middle of this pic.


 There was a steep decline that was difficult to get down, let alone get back up so Diane decided she would stay topside while I ventured down and explored more of the wash. I did not get out of sight of Diane, doing so would not be safe or wise :). Diane did remind me that the next time I venture off I need to leave the Jeep keys with her.

Yesterday we headed back into Big Bend National Park for a 52 mile dirt and rock road drive. East River Road is roughly 37 miles into the park then heads east. This was our first dirt road back in 2019 and it took us almost 10 hours to complete. Today the park service must have filled in a lot of the challenging ruts and holes as it took us only 5 hours to complete the 52 miles with a couple of stops along the way. 

Because of the holiday weekend we ran into a lot of vehicles on the road. At one point there were 13 Ford Bronco's traveling together with one Jeep at the rear herd tending those horses. We did mark off a few spots that we will return to hike after the holidays are over. 

Rio Grand River, other side is Mexico.

Knee deep water where there is water.


 Here are a couple of pics of the night sky take in the RV Park.




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