Big Bend Part 2: Geology

Don't let the title scare you away...I don't know much about the subject, so I won't go on forever about it! :) Again, I have a disclaimer.

1) I do not claim to have any recollection of any geology studies I may or may not have suffered through in school or at home (my dad was a geology major in his college days). So if I make a complete fool of myself by trying to recap what I did or didn't learn during this trip regarding geology, feel free to comment...or you can let me live in ignorant bliss.

Monday morning we got up at 6:30am in the DARK and cooked pancakes and eggs by headlamp. It was quite interesting, especially since the stove’s lowest setting was too hot for the pancakes to cook right. So Heather and I took turns holding the pan 2 inches above the burner instead of letting it rest on the burner.

This is what we were seeing (or not seeing).
Here we are with the flash so you can see us. :)

This is the MORNING sky - the sun is coming up!

We had planned to go to a “Geology for Dummies” tour led by Ranger Angelina Yost which started at 8:30am. By the skin of our teeth we arrived on time and started to be edjumacated about the geology of Big Bend National Park. And here is where my disclaimer will play a major role in my story.

Ranger Yost started out at the Panther Junction visitor’s center with comparing the timeline of the earth’s evolution to a 12 month calendar year.

I think the gist of the outline was that there was a Precambrian Era that would have taken up from January 1 through Christmas. Then there was a Paleozoic era that started at Christmas, followed by a Mesozoic era (I don’t recall when that started), and then the Cenozoic era which may have started on Dec 31st (which includes the Quaternary period that we’re in now). Heather may recall more details better than I do – Ranger Yost was good, but I think I must have been one of her “dumber” dummies because I still didn’t quite catch all of the terms that she was throwing out there.

Ranger Yost then told us what was happening geologically during these eras and started breaking down the eras into periods. There were deep seas in the Paleozoic era, then sedimentation occurred to create shallow seas and beaches started forming as land masses started moving, creating the Appalachian mountains. Dinosaurs were thrown in there somewhere (Mesozoic era??), and then they died and the Rocky Mountains were formed. Somewhere in there she mentioned a chocolate covered caramel bar which got my attention (surprise, surprise). It was to illustrate land pulling apart and stretching, which causes the middle part to sink in elevation while the ends stay tall. (I'll throw some pictures in here so you don't get bored, but I don't have explanations because I don't remember what she said about the geologists' theories for these formations).

Obviously I didn’t catch all of the details she was sharing, and I’ll admit that I wasn’t really paying attention that closely because I don’t agree with the “a billion years ago the earth was formed” timeline. I did find it interesting that the Appalachian mountains reach as far south/west as Texas, so Texas has mountains that are members of both the Appalachian mountain range and the Rockies Mountain range. I think most people think of the Appalachian Trail which stretches from Georgia to Maine, and figure that the mountain range starts/stops in those states, too. But according to the all-knowing geologists, “The Ouachita mountain belt extended from the Southern Appalachian region across the Mississippi Valley region, all the way across Texas into the Big Bend Region, and southward into Mexico.” Well I’ll be!

Once we got on the road, we were shown mountains that were formed by the erosion around intrusions (magma, or underground lava, that pushed through older rock but didn’t come out on the earth’s surface); and extrusions (volcanoes that blew up spewing lava). Laccoliths were pointed out, as well as dikes and volcanic domes (don’t ask me the definitions though).

The next part that got my attention was when Ranger Yost started explaining that over the past 10 years, geologists have changed their mind about how some of the mountains formed, and how old they really are. Apparently after Mt. St. Helens erupted, a lava dome started forming faster than geologists thought it could/should form. And a guy in Japan recorded a mountain “growing” in the 1940s, also proving that mountains can form a lot faster than geologists guessed. So now they think some mountains in Big Bend are actually volcanic dome, rather than intrusions that required millions of years of erosion to expose.

This map was made in the 60's by a geologist riding on a horse. So Ranger Yost said that part of it (encompasing the harder to reach mountains I believe) is wrong. Yet it's still the only map that the Park has. She mentioned that there is a project being proposed to create a new map using modern technology (GPS, satellite, etc). But for now, they have to use this old map. Incredible!
I had to bite my tongue (hard) to keep from asking about how geologists thought a world-wide flood that would create a water covered world for a little less than a year, which would recede in a matter of 2-3 months would affect their geologic timeline theories (see Genesis ch 7 and 8). Because what I took away from Ranger Yost’s talk was that the geologists really have no idea how anything formed, their theories change every decade, and that nature really does reflect God’s glory and prove He exists (see Psalm 19).

Okay, no more soap box from Kelli…Here are some pictures!!

This picture and the one right after it are pictures of dikes. Basically, I think it's the thin protrusions that were formed when magma seeped up through a crack, and then when everything else eroded around it, the formations were left standing.

After our tour, we drove around to different overlooks and vistas and had fun taking pictures. (Erin Valerius, this was for you - we tried to make an "EV" with our shadows in your honor.)

(The lengths we'll go to to get a great picture!)
Then we drove down to the Santa Elena Canyon and hiked along the Rio Grande. It was magnificent! I was blown away by how big the canyon walls were. I didn’t get to go to the bottom of the Grand Canyon when I visited as a kid, but I bet it is a lot like Santa Elena Canyon. UNLIKE the Grand Canyon, we didn’t have to deal with a thousand people all clamoring to see the same vista. During the Ranger talk that we attended on Tuesday night, Ranger Mary Kay even mentioned that Big Bend National Park is one of the least visited National Parks (one of Texas’ best kept secrets in my opinion).

That's Paul down there next to the river.


This is looking back at the mountains from the Rio Grande at Santa Elena Canyon.

After spending about 2 hours hiking around Santa Elena Canyon, we drove some more to different sites. But we hadn't packed a lunch, and by 4pm, some of us were starting to show the effects of low blood sugar. So we went back to camp for some supper!!

Here's the "creative" picture at Mule Ears that I mentioned in my previous post. Paul's such a funny guy, isn't he?

The Window from the NE again, but with the sun higher in the sky so you can see the details better.

Big Bend Part 1: Overview

First, some disclaimers.

1) So much happened and we took in so many sights in just 4 days that I don't really know where to begin so I apologize in advance if it seems unorganized. I’ll try to split up the recap of our trip into separate blogs, so you can skip the sections you don’t care about, and only read the ones you want to.

2) Evan and Heather Kittleman are our friends that we knew in our Indiana days, who came down to go on this trip with us. They did not get to proofread this blog before I posted it, so if I misrepresented them in any way, I did not intend to - please forgive me! They are wonderful friends and we hope to travel with them again in the future.

3) I cannot take credit for all of the photos posted in the Big Bend Series as I have in previous posts. All four of us (Evan, Heather, Paul, myself) were picture taking fools thanks to the digital era and between the 3 cameras that we toted, I estimate that we have close to 2000 pictures of desert land...no, I won't subject you to all of them here, but if I post pictures of the same scenery, please understand my predicament in sorting out which pictures to post.

Now, on to our vacation story!

It started at 6am on Sunday Oct 7th, when we left the camp in search of the west Texas desert known as Big Bend National Park. We stopped for kolaches (sausages wrapped in super yummy bread made fresh that morning) and donuts for breakfast in an effort to introduce Texas cuisine to Evan and Heather.

Then Paul drove for hours until we came to this rest stop where we stopped for lunch. Evan had mentioned that all TX rest stops have wireless internet available, which we attempted to take advantage of, but which failed since the service was so slow.

(Note the laptop on the table).

Around 4pm we arrived at Big Bend National Park where we briefly visited the Persimmon Gap visitor’s center, paid our park entrance fee, and continued on to the Chisos Mountain Basin campsite area. I think we were all pleased to find that the campsite (higher in elevation) was at least 10 degrees cooler than the visitor’s center, because when we first got out of the car at the visitor’s center, all I could think was “Man, we’re gonna be HOT and MISERABLE”. But we weren’t! The trip was great!

After driving in circles around the 60 or so campsites that had concrete slabs with tables and shelters (to save the occupants from the scorching sun), we found the best choice for our tents and got settled. (This is probably the best view I've ever had while car camping in established campsites!)

As Heather and I were starting supper, we realized that we hadn’t planned on arriving early enough to cook supper and had planned on eating out on the way to the campground…which meant that the supper we were about to eat was supposed to be the next night’s supper…which meant that we were short food. Not a good thing to discover out in the desert with two grown men to feed, but hey, we’re on vacation…no worries, right?

After supper we went up to the Chisos Basin visitor’s center and found a short overlook area that has a view of the “Window” so we took in the sunset and were introduced to a sampling of desert plants that we would soon come to recognize and even know some of the common names.

That evening we played card games by lantern-light and reacquainted ourselves with each of our “friendly-competitive” natures. The first night we started out easy with Boom-o and Hallelujah (similar to spades, but no with no partners), but as the week progressed, we moved to a seriously competitive game of Hearts, which many of our neighbors could probably testify to (we obeyed all the camping en masse etiquette rules and were quiet after 10pm, though if anyone watched the shadows on the walls, they would have seen many wild gestures of aggravation, frustration and conquest)!

Now for the quick recap of the rest of our time in Big Bend:

Monday: Went on a Geology for Dummies tour (the next blog will have more details) in the morning. Then we drove all over the park and visited key landmarks/points of interest, including the Rio Grande! After supper we played more cards and did our best to get Evan all worked up over his losses. :)

Tuesday: Hiked about 10.5 miles, starting at the Chisos Mountain Basin visitor’s center and going all around on various trails. We encountered a mule deer (I’m pretending that’s what it was – I don’t know for certain though – feel free to correct me in the next blog), a couple Mexican Jays that wanted our lunch, 2 snakes, and countless numbers of century plants, lechuguilla plants, and other plants that I can’t identify by name. (A Wildlife/Plants blog is coming in the future). In the evening we went to a Ranger-led talk about the National Parks and the history, variety, locations, and importance of preserving them. It was more interesting than it sounds, I promise. The Ranger made us break up into groups and take a “quiz”, so it was interactive, too. And after that we picked up where we left off in our card playing competition. This time I was the aggravated/animated loser.

Wednesday: Packed up our tents/gear in the morning and then drove around to the remaining landmarks that we wanted to see before leaving the park. We encountered a tarantula on the road (the Ranger said it was tarantula mating season - glad I found that out on the last night!), we saw a fox, and a couple of lizards (small ones). We hiked to the balancing rock which was fun, and then headed down to the Rio Grande Village area and to the Boquillas Canyon Overlook. After we’d seen all we could fit in that day, we headed to Fort Stockton and checked into a hotel for a SHOWER!!! (the first shower since we left on Sunday morning). We ended with supper at IHOP for pancakes and French toast!

Thursday: Drove for about 7 hours to Winchester (small town south of Giddings), ate at Murphy’s Steakhouse for a good ol’ hometown meal, then headed back to camp (Camp Tejas that is).

Friday: Went to Dublin, TX and visited the original Dr. Pepper bottling factory. Then we went to a TX winery on the way back to Waco, where we ate at Rudy's BBQ, and finished it off with a milkshake at Health Camp (on the infamous "circle" in Waco).

Saturday: Went to San Antonio for the day to see the Alamo and Riverwalk. It was the perfect day to be in San Antonio because it was Living History day at the Alamo, Chalk Drawing day on Houston St, and the International Accordian Festival was going on at the same time. (A separate blog will cover these days...I bet you can't hardly wait til I post them!).

Okay, now for some highlight pictures. If you don’t want any more details, then don’t read the next few blogs. But if you do, y’all come back!

Evan & Heather Kittleman (first day picture)

Paul & Kelli (first day picture)

This is a century plant which I'll talk more about in another blog. They're very cool plants.

This is Casa Grande Peak viewed from the Chisos Mountain Visitor's Center.

This is the "Window" viewed from the NW looking SE. (Casa Grande Peak is in the center of the window in the background).

(Paul took this pic...he's so creative...we all copied his idea in later pictures)

Does she look Texan yet?

This is Santa Elena Canyon. Mexico is on the left of the river, the U.S. is on the right of the river. (You can't actually see the river in the picture, but it's in the middle).

Evan & Paul on the trail (waiting for us as we took pictures...but some day they'll thank us for taking so many pictures so we can remember when we're 85...or even 45).

The two peaks in the background on the right are called "Mule Ears". Check back later for a more "creative" picture of Mule Ears.

Paul waiting for me to catch up on our hike up to Emory Peak.

Boot Canyon. Think of a leg sticking straight up with a boot on it. The heel of the "boot" is on the left, the toe of the "boot" is on the right (highest part of the rock).

The "after" picture once we finished our 10.5 mile hike through the mountains.

Yep, it's a tarantula. It was as big as my hand! Later I'll get the video of it up so you can see it touch Paul's shoe to give you a reference point for its size.

If you look closely, you can see the snake - his head is lighter in color and is aiming at the rock, which he slithered under/around as we approached.

This is Balancing Rock. I think it's in the Grapevine Hills area of the park. Strangely it's not marked on any of the maps I have or looked at online, but it was a worthwhile trail to take to see the view!

This is a lechuguilla plant that's still partially green with evidence of it's blooms (Supposedly the blooms are purple and yellow, but we were there after all of the plants were done blooming).

Okay, that's a taste of our Big Bend Trip. I'll post more pics and stories over the next few days to give you details!