Big Bend 2024 (Day 4)

Bottom line first: I made it!

After breakfast, the four of us going to the Window Trail gathered at the van. Lizelle (Iconic guide) drove us to the lower parking lot, which apparently cut about a mile off the walk (which would otherwise have been about 4 miles). We were greeted by sun starting to appear on the mountain in front of us…beautiful. A short walk from our parking spot through the parking lot brought us to the starting point for this hike. (Yes, that’s my shadow in the picture of the sign. Sorry!)

This trail is kind of unique in that it’s almost all downhill to the Window. Of course, that means the way back will be all uphill. But I was OK with that. It can be easier on the knees to go uphill, so I just planned to go slow when we had to climb.

The steepest part of the downhill at the beginning was not bad. It had the usual National Park “stairs.” They were well spaced and well maintained, and the first 0.3 mile stretch was behind us.

From there, the path was kind of “the usual.” Most was rocky, some was dusty. Some was through a dry creek bed. Some was in shade, some was sunny. The temperature was pretty cool (about 62 when we started and upper 70s at the end). And since there was a weather cool down today, it never got really hot. It did get sunny, though never so much sun as to be a problem.

You can track our initial progress by watching the angle of those “finger” rocks. Then we saw some cool cacti. The very tall one at the end of this set of pictures is an Agave cactus.

As we got toward the lower part of the trail, the features changed a bit. These were just cool things I saw along the way. The birds are Mexican Blue Jays.

There was a “thin” jutting rock type feature (the first two pictures) we had to walk around, then we saw the end of the creek bed. Here the path changed drastically and was a bit more challenging to navigate.

As we turned another corner, we saw the “Window.” We didn’t do the absolutely very last stretch as folks had warned us that it was difficult to come back up from, but we got close enough to get a good view. You can see how the pathway became more challenging. We took it slow and got around the big rocks.

Funny story. Marilyn and I were out front. We ran into a really big rock that had no step in it, but it was obviously one people had slid down since it was worn smooth. We decided to go for it, then worry about how we’d get back up later. Once down, though, Marilyn spotted some stairs that had been built to go around that obstacle. Ha! Now alerted, we found two other stair walk arounds that made things easier. Still pretty dicey as the steps were of different heights and shapes, but better than crawling over a huge boulder! 🙂

The first three pictures show the Window; the crack in the rock you can see through. The last picture is when we turned around to go back. See the stairs on the right?

The trip back was relatively uneventful, but long. A couple of folks went ahead. I brought up the rear. Lizelle did a masterful job of keeping track of all her charges on this trail, being sure everyone was doing OK and meeting everyone’s needs. Good job!

Altogether we (I) hiked for just under 4.5 hours. It was a long morning!

I was pooped and wanted to rest before lunch, already in progress. Lizelle said we could get mine to go and she’d bring it to me. Took a while for the kitchen to get it made so I ended up eating at about 2:30.

Our evening adventure started at 4 PM when we headed to the bigger visitor center, then off to dinner at the Starlight Theatre restaurant in Terlingua, with a short stop at the Terlingua Cemetery on the way. Richard got my picture fraternizing with a bear (seat) (thanks Richard!). The restaurant used to be used as a theater and as we went in, there were musicians on the stage, right above our tables! It was loud, but the music, and the food, were good.

The space had been used as a theater and kind of community center for years. As the mine work ran out and mines closed, the population dwindled and the theater was abandoned. Materials from it were scavenged for other building projects. Then it began to be used again, but without a roof. That’s where the “Starlight” in the name came from. Eventually a roof was put on and it became what it is today.

Our table finished our meal first, so we piled into one of the vans and headed back. In the parking lot, I got a shot of the full moon. It was a 3-second hand-held, so a little fuzzy. But it did seem like a fitting picture to end this day with.

Tomorrow we start with horseback riding. Woo hoo! Now I’m off to bed. I’m really looking forward to laying flat for a while! 🙂