Dennis Dixon is heading West!: Big Bend Nat'l Park, Day 4/6

Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020 - So, I was sitting in my motel room, still dark outside, and I thought "I wonder what's West of here". I pulled up Google Maps, and followed 170 west/southwest. It went into this mountainous area, right alongside the Rio Grande river:

and eventually wound up at Closed Canyon, and Closed Canyon Trail:

That sounds SO COOL!

So, after sunrise and breakfast next door:

I hit the road west:

The Conservation Area west of Big Bend National Park is Big Bend Ranch State Park:

Very nice paved road. This is some really raw, beautiful country:

It is a real joy to be out here on the "Texas Mountain Trail":

(wait til you see this afternoon!)

I made it to Closed Canyon Trail at 9:45:

Um, there is NOT A CLOUD IN THE SKY!

Closed Canyon is a slot canyon that runs southwest from the highway to the Rio Grande. Once again, MapMyWalk gets a little funky in the canyons:

No, I did not race up-and-down the canyon walls.

The Canyon is very cool:

The lighting contrast is HUGE! Both these pictures were taken from the same spot. The first focused on the canyon wall:

and the second focused on the cliffs above, in the sunlight:

Photoshop, anyone?

I kept going through the Canyon:

until I encountered something BAD - there was a super-smooth boulder jammed in the smooth canyon walls, with a six-foot dropoff down on its other side:

Although I certainly could have climbed over it and dropped down on the other side, there was NO WAY that I was going to be able to get back out - up and over it! So I stopped here and came back out (1.96 miles in 33 minutes) - did not make it to the Rio Grande:

Next time I'll bring a ladder?

I drove back the way I came, through Terlingua and into Big Bend National Park, and down into Chisos Basin (I'm getting to be an old-hand at this). I want to go up to the Radio Tower on Emory Peak (the highest point in the Park):

You get there by taking Pinnacles Trail for 3.8 miles, then take a right onto Emory Peak Trail for 1.5 miles.

I wound up hiking 10.74 miles in 4 hours 42 minutes:

Pinnacles Trail gains a lot of elevation:

and the views around the Basin are wonderful:

After 1 hour 40 minutes I hit the side trail for Emory Peak:

And that's when the views GOT GREAT!

Okay okay okay - so the Emory Peak Trail is pretty steady going up:

until you get to the last 100 yards. Then you climb up a little ways through the forest, and arrive at a rock-landing between two peaks. I said hi to a woman who was there - she didn't know which was the "correct peak", and her husband went up the right one. I said what the heck, and hand-climbed up the left one (if it was wrong, I would just go back down, and up ther other).

I was SOOO PSYCHED to see this part on Google Earth, with the 2 Peaks:

BUT GOOGLE EARTH WIMPED OUT - not enough detail in either their Digital Elevation Model, nor in their Satellite imagery!!!

Blessedly, when I got to the top of my peak (which I'll call "K2"), I took a picture of the guy over on the HIGHER PEAK:

turn-about is fair play, so he took one of me "down there":

Pretty cool view from "the wrong peak":

I climbed down/over (saying Hi to the wife)/and up, saying Hi to the husband ("THIS CAN NOT POSSIBLY BE LEGAL!!!")

We Laughed.

I was on top of the other peak at 3 PM, and the wind was HOWLING.

Being up there, and then climbing back down, was truly a "Sublime" experience. I go back to Edmund Burke (1729-1797) and his treatise of aesthetics called "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful", which, for An Experience to Be Sublime, it incorporates an aspect of Danger when experiencing some Beauty, experiencing something Awesome.

It was Dangerous up there, but not the Bad-Danger/anything-bad-can-happen, but rather it demanded my full attention. Upon me giving the situation my Full Attention, I was able to be on the Peak, and to descend successfully.

Interestingly, I would do it again.

Once off the peak, I made my way back down the trail until I encountered the-husband-and-wife. We exchanged Contact info (he spoke first), and when he said "Area Code 508" I burst out laughing and said that I was from Manchester-by-the-Sea. They both burst out laughing!!! It turns out they had just moved from Rockport down to Mattapoisett to be able to sail on Buzzards Bay!!! I got some more fun "selfie" pictures from him:

"The red fleece really stands out!"

An hour-and-a-half later, I was back down at the bottom, with just a mile to go:

A final goodbye to Chisos Basin, and I head back west to Terlingua:

Back in Terlingua at 6. Hey, everybody was ordering their pizza over the past 2 nights, so that's what I had tonight. On the way back to the motel I saw a coyote cross the road (he actually went 3/4 of the way across, then turned around and went back). Then night 3 of "Heavy Rescue: 401" on The Weather Channel. Thank you God for all these Wonderful Adventures!

Today's Drive - 130 miles, in a little over 3 hours: