Big Bend 2024 (Day 3)

Breakfast at the hotel in Marfa, then we were on the road. First picture: the vans we travel in! We’re a group of 16 altogether. That means eight in each van. Since they seat 12, we have a few empty seats so the ride is quite comfortable. There’s a little changing around between vans for short trips, but we seem to have settled into our preferred vans/seats for the trip.

That picture is actually at our first stop today, the Marathon Grasslands Preserve. Marathon because it’s not far from the town of Marathon. Preserve is because this is a property The Nature Conservancy owns (as opposed to those it has conservation easements on).

The structure on the property is a small house a previous owner moved to the site as a get-away. It has a kitchen/dining area, living room, bedroom, and a great porch. Chairs had been set up on the porch, so we sat all in a row to hear from Kaylee all about the history of the property, and how and why TNC owns it. Lots of info on the ecology of the place, too. The third picture is the view from the porch. Great horizon and views of mountains all around.

While Kaylee was briefing us, we saw a herd of elk move through the area just to the right of the view. They were too far away to get a picture of, but it was fun to watch them through the binoculars the TNC/Iconic folks provided.

One of the main reasons TNC acquired the property was to preserve the prairie dog colony that lives here. (Cue the “awww”s.) Unfortunately, the prairie dogs, too, were not close enough to get pictures of, but some did come out of their mounds to check up on us. We’d see first a head, then a whole body. They’re so cute! Look like fat meerkats.

The first picture is several mounds, so you can see how they’re spaced. the second pic is of the one that was closest to us. No prairie dog came out of that one, though.

While Eliana was telling us all about the prairie dogs, a brown spider jumped up on Marilyn’s pant leg. He was brushed down quickly and stayed in place long enough for a picture. Being really well camouflaged, it’s hard to see. I promise you there’s a spider in that last picture, though!

After this excitement, someone spotted a badger in the distance. As it came into view, it found a small pond on the property (rare, since this place is in drought) and proceeded to splash around. Seemed like a bath was in order! After that, it came right into the mound area and started sniffing and digging at some of the mounds, looking for a meal. This went on for quite a while. No one saw it actually catch one. I stopped looking after a while ’cause I didn’t want to know the outcome of this episode. Badger’s gotta’ eat, but…. cute prairie dogs!

After all this, we headed back to the house where we grabbed our lunch and ate sitting on the porch enjoying the view and the great breeze. Out of the sun, the temperature was really pleasant.

Then it was off on a 2-hour or so journey south to Big Bend National Park. After my individual picture with the sign, you can see most of the group gathered around. Our first stop in the park was at a dinosaur exhibit. Didn’t take pictures of the dinosaur bones, but I got a couple of panorama shots of the surrounding area. This is the desert part of the park! The last picture is another panorama shot; this one of the view from the porch of my room. Really pretty!

The rooms are basic but have everything we need, and are pretty spacious (2 double beds). We’ll be here for three nights so I spread my stuff out a little. 🙂

Had a great talk by the Deputy Superintendent of the park, then enjoyed dinner at the park restaurant. We talked about who wanted to do what in the morning. I’m going on the Window Trail walk, which is apparently about 3.5 miles. Since we’re leaving at 8:15 AM, it should be pretty cool. And the weather forecast is for slightly cooler temps tomorrow anyway, so it should be pleasant. We’ll see how I hold up for that long a hike!