Talk about switchbacks! Second gear and smelly brakes, but we're here at Chisos Mountains Basin +- 5500ft, extinct volcano surrounded by peaks as shown in the photos, which rise another 3000 or so feet. It's all that we expected and much more. The Basin is 20 degrees cooler than the desert floor & harbor pine, juniper, assorted cactus, deer, mountain lions, bears and misc. other wildlife. A fellow camper spotted a bear yesterday. We've seen no fearsome critters, yet, during our hikes, but we make lots of noise.
Big Bend Nat. Park is 801,163 acres & was estab. in 1944. Much of the park's const. was done by the CCC
(another example of "good" the government has done), & the park is the largest in the lower 48.
At all points of the compass there's a spell-binding photograph.. Never have I seen anything to match it and I've seen a good bit of stuff.
The rocks of Big Bend are a complex lot. Two seas--one after another flowed & subsided in the region 100s of millions of years ago, The mountains uplifted along with the Rockies, +- 75 million years back.
There is remarkable diversity of life--1200 plant species--some found only here & 450 species of birds.
Inhabitants include Apache, Span. Conquistadores, Comanche, US soldiers, miners, ranchers and farmers,
Mex. revolutionaries, international outlaws, bandits and us, for a week or so.
Hiking every day, constantly "rubbernecking" the flora, fauna & topography. Pretty whipped right now.
Later....
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