23 Southwest Highways & Fields
Park of the Month
By Eamon Decker
Big Bend National Park
Brewster County, TX
Big Bend is a huge park in far west Texas, with vast, lonely deserts, cool, dry mountains sprinkled with Alligator Juniper, and the Rio Grande River, a narrow watercourse flowing through canyons and desert hills. An Oasis in a land devoid of water, the Rio Grande flows from the mountains of Colorado, around Big Bend, and eventually down to the Gulf of Mexico. Even though the Big Bend Desert may seem desolate and lifeless, the park is teeming with birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects. The three different ecosystems in the park provide a wide range of animal and
plant species. I like to hike all three
environments, and see the many
different inhabitants of each region.
My favorite hike in the park is in the
Chisos Mountains, on the Lost Mine
Trail. This trail ascends into the mount-
ains, a fairly steep incline, but not so
hard to hike due to the aid log terracing
"stairs" installed by the park service.
Hiking the Lost Mine Trail leads to many
rewarding vistas, and winds up the
mountain through Alligator Juniper,
Pines and other dry-mountain flora.
The hike is moderate, at 4.8 miles round trip, mostly downhill on the return trip. A desert hike I enjoy is the Dodson Trail, which starts as a walk on the gravely desert floor, surrounded by mountains, on the old Homer Wilson Ranch. The trail is marked by rock cairns, and goes along dry creekbeds and past the old ranch house. You can spot sparrows in the grass meadows, and watch lizards crawling across the bottom of a wash.
Lost Mine Trail
Leland Decker