It’s completely coincidental that I’m in my second National Park in four days the same week Ken Burn’s fantastic series has been having it’s debut on PBS. If you haven’t seen any of it, I highly recommend it based on the random bits I’ve seen so far. Point being, in my hotel in Big Bend there was no television, cell phone or internets of which to speak, so I missed the Wednesday episode. I’m sure there’s a lesson in restorative isolation that’s implicit in that sort of thing but it’s not a lesson I choose to embrace right now.
But as for Big Bend itself. There’s some great hiking, spectacular mountains and canyons, wildlife friggin everywhere (seen: four deer, a multitude of jackrabbits, this blue bird, many many millipedes, a single tarantula scurrying across the road, one big honkin’ green snake, tons of red-headed vultures; disappointingly not seen: my promised mountain lion). I left with the same feeling I had towards the Grand Canyon – a better planned trip would have involved some backcountry overnights and trails hiked through to the end. I’m also not entirely keen on pushing myself deep into unknown woods alone at sunset – in the three hours I was out I only saw two other on the trails, a couple heading back in early. I guess late September isn’t the highest of high seasons. Had I met my mountain lion, the odds of anyone showing up to help would have been slim. But it would have made for an awesome POTD, you gotta admit.
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