A Year About

Can you spot the entrance?

Did you know that Carlsbad Caverns were carved by sulfuric acid? Apparently, Ancient Peoples — who were not as environmentally aware as we are today — would discard their old car batteries in this scenic valley where the harsh sun would crack the plastic allowing the acid to trickle into the earth, burning massive holes as it went. Silly Ancient Peoples!

Well, that first bit is true.



It turns out, this is where all the scenery went. Underground! It is pointless to try and convey the spectacle of this place. It is more immense than you can picture, more elaborate and convoluted, and filled with formations of incredible variety and delicacy. While the sulfuric acid made the holes some ten million years ago, water laden with minerals is filling the holes back in one tiny crystal at a time.



It’s a mile walk down the natural entrance and it took us an hour and a half because we would stop and gawk every twenty feet. Eventually you get used to the vastness. That’s when you become more amazed by the intricacy of the stalagmites (up from the floor) and stalactites (down from the ceiling), and the many other formations.



Elise earned herself another junior ranger patch and became mesmerized by Ranger Rebecca who led us on a tour through the “King’s Palace.” The ranger praised Elise for being a good size for cave exploring, since she didn’t have to duck anywhere and could fit into smaller crevices and such. For Danine and me, this was the kind of cave exploring we like: railings, lighted walkways, big openings.

At one point in the tour, we all sat down and the ranger turned off the lights, leaving only a flashlight on. Next she turned off the flashlight, leaving only a lighter on. It looked like a little flame in a big heap of blackness. Then she turned that off. My mind really wanted to picture things where I had seen them a moment before, but my eyes kept telling my mind that there was nothing to see. I waved my hand in front of my face. Still nothing. After awhile, the ranger said, “If you want me to turn the lights back on, raise your hand.” That’s a ranger joke. First, she flicked on the lighter again. We were amazed at how much our eyes had become used to the dark. Now the lighter seemed to illuminate the whole room. Both Danine and I wondered what it would be like to spend the night down here in the dark. Spooky, yes, but also kinda cool.

The disappointment of the day, was the lack of bats. The cave is a summer home to Mexican free-tailed bats. About 100,000 or so. At sunset they fly out of the cave and into the night searching for dinner. It is such an event that there is amphitheater-style seating at the mouth of the cave to witness it. Another kind of bat does remain in the caverns all year, but they hibernate. They fly miles — miles — down into the recesses of the place to make their homes. It takes them only a few minutes to fly in or out, in the pitch blackness.



We will likely make the hour drive to Guadalupe Mountains National Park tomorrow if Elise and I recover from our hypothermia after swimming in the campground’s indoor pool.


Here’s a trusty ladder.

This picture captures the gravel, but not the constant, dust-filled wind.

Our drive from Fort Davis stands in stark contrast to our drive from Big Bend. Stark being the operative word. As you head towards Pecos things become deadly flat and stay that way to Carlsbad. We drove through Pecos, TX, which appears to have been largely abandoned and is now in the process of eroding from constant wind. We didn’t stop. The state of Texas recognizes how stunningly boring this area is and increases the speed limit to 80 MPH, so you can get through faster.



Entering New Mexico the scenery didn’t change, but the speed limit goes back down to 65. We also transitioned to Mountain Time, so our four hour drive took only three! Sort of. We are now in a gravel parking lot, I mean RV park, in the town of Carlsbad. There’s an RV park right next to the caverns which are 16 miles south of us, but after reading Rich Luhr’s experience we opted to stay in a place with clean bathrooms and less debris lying around. It ain’t pretty, but it’s serviceable. Carlsbad is not a delightful looking place either. It was bound to happen: after seeing so many amazing and beautiful sights, we finally found the area where they ran out. It is decidedly non-scenic round here.

Tomorrow we’ll go to Carlsbad Caverns. The contrast with our current surroundings should be impressive.

As promised, we met up with my cousin Mark this afternoon back at Fort Davis. We took a quick tour of some the interesting houses in town and then piled into his truck and drove down to Marfa. I didn’t realize that’s where the James Dean film Giant was shot, as well as the Coen brothers’ new No Country for Old Men. It’s a cool little town, but is mostly closed in Tuesday: the bookstore, the cafe we thought would be good… We checked out a museum and an art installation, then headed over to Alpine for some Tex-Mex and a stop at the local bookstore.

All the while we caught up with Mark and exchanged news of the extended family and learned about some of the cool places he’s worked for the Park Service. Coolest place: Fort Jefferson on the Dry Tortugas. We finally headed back to our trailer and shared the gingerbread that Danine and Elise made this morning. It was a great way to cap a nice visit. I’ve said it before, but these visits with family and friends have been a really special part of our trip. Thank you, Mark, for spending time with us and reconnecting — hope we see you again soon!

Bobby and Mark

Today we dropped in on Mark, my first cousin once removed: he is my mom’s first cousin; I am one generation removed from them. See how that works? We didn’t have a phone number for him, only a post office box. Mark does a lot of the maintenance and some of the restoration at the Fort Davis National Historic Site. He wasn’t there yesterday, so we drove back today and popped in on him. He was shocked! He joked that because the family is so big, some relative was bound to show up one day and surprise him.

The last time I would have seen Mark was at my great grandmother’s 100th birthday, 24 years ago. He was very gracious and we chatted for a bit, but I didn’t want to monopolize his time — he works after all, unlike us. We snapped a picture and I gave him our blog address, so he could see pictures of Maud and Ruby (his aunts, my great aunts) from our visit to them way back in October.


The visitor’s center. See the sundial in front of the building?

We then headed back up to the McDonald Observatory for their daytime tour. Once again, it was a great visit. We learned about spectroscopy, which is a crucial technique to astronomers in identifying the characteristics of stars, such as age, size and true brightness. We learned about the Sun, its layers, and the occurrence of sun spots and prominences.


Inside the dome of the Harlan J. Smith telescope.

Finally we got to tour the two largest telescopes there. The first, called the 107-inch Harlan J. Smith telescope because of the diameter of the mirror, is huge and impressive. The telescope weighs 170 odd tons and is precisely balanced on two massive concrete piers that extend down to the bedrock of the mountain. The building around it, including the dome and the floor around the telescope, are separate from this so that vibrations made in the building will not disturb the telescope.


Looking from the 107-inch telescope to the HET.

Then we saw the more modern Hobby-Eberly (HET) Telescope, also known as the Rich Guys Who Donated Money So Their Names Are On It Telescope. This is the third largest telescope in the world and has the largest mirror in the world: 494 inches in diameter. It was designed and is used primarily to study the spectrum of stars — spectroscopy again. It is also a very cost-effective telescope. Its mirror is actually made up of many hexagonal mirrors, each of which can be adjusted separately. It is constructed of stock materials from other industries: the geodesic dome of a radar tower, the trusses used for the roof structure in some airports and other buildings, and so on. I would imagine that the ratio of valuable scientific data to dollar spent on it is as favorable as it gets.


The mirror is sitting just above the aqua colored frame.

After indulging in the food of the cafe there, we headed home. When we arrived, my cousin Mark drove up! He wanted to take us to dinner, but we just ate. We decided to get together tomorrow and perhaps drive into Marfa. That’s incredibly nice of him and we will see him tomorrow. Hopefully afterwards he can come back to the trailer for the gingerbread Danine and Elise are planning to make.


Speaking of spectrums of light! An unexpected rainbow over the Davis Mountains.

The CCC-built Indian Lodge in the Davis Mountains State Park

The only shower at this campground is the one farthest away from our campsite. The one 75 yards away from us is closed for unknown and mysterious reasons. To shower, I have to either ride my bike or drive. Since it was only 40 degrees Sunday morning, I elected to drive.

Showers completed, we drove ten minutes down the road to Ft. Davis and went to St. Joseph for Mass. It is a mission style church, with simple adornments. Over half of the congregation is Spanish and all were friendly. One thing I noticed was how thin the pews were, only about three quarters of an inch thick. About eight years ago, the church undertook a centennial renovation. In the back of the church there were some cases displaying pre-Vatican II vestments (elaborately decorated on the back since that is the part of the priest the congregation saw), old chalices, prayer books and other religious articles.



After Mass we dined at the Black Bear Restaurant attached to the Indian Lodge here in the State Park. The lodge was built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in the 30s and opened in 1939. It’s a beautiful building. Lunch was the Sunday buffet: fried chicken, cheesy scalloped potatoes, fried okra and mushrooms, a salad buffet, and of course jell-o salad! We filled ourselves with as much fried food as we could and then headed to Ft. Davis National Historical Site.


The back porch of the commanding officer’s quarters

Ft. Davis (named after then Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis) was occupied from 1854 until 1891 with a brief interruption during the Civil War. Its main purpose was to protect emigrants, freighters, mail coaches, and travelers on the San Antonio-El Paso Road. During the Gold Rush, this road (which actually went all the way to San Diego) was the only one open year-round. The northern routes would get blocked by snow. Apache and Comanche bands would harass and attack the travelers. The government was called upon to protect the citizens, and Ft. Davis was established.


The row of officers’ quarters, with a view

It is a well-preserved frontier military post. We were able to see restored officers’ living quarters, enlisted men’s barracks, kitchens, the hospital, and several ruins. The fort was actually built twice. The original fort consisted of wood and thatch buildings on stone foundations. Interestingly, some of these foundations remain (while some were cannibalized for use in the new fort). The old foundations form a line at a different angle than the rows of newer buildings. Why? The old buildings are aligned to true north and the newer are aligned with magnetic north. No one knows exactly why, but one of the rangers theorized that it was done out of convenience to distinguish between the old and new foundations.


One of the artifacts Elise found

Elise, the archeologist, found her first true artifacts here. All over the grounds there are pottery shards, pieces of glass and old square-headed nails. She discovered a beautiful piece of what she thinks was a plate, and ran to tell the rangers. She was disappointed they didn’t want to collect the shard and thought it should be preserved. Walking around more, though, helped her realize that there are so many of these pieces that they could never all be collected and she was more at peace with the rangers!



In the late afternoon I sat outside with Elise while she played on the picnic table with her stuffed animals. Three does and a buck waltzed up and hung around us for about ten minutes. One doe sniffed Elise’s animals. They obviously have been fed before and are a little too tame. It made for an interesting visit though!

Our campsite at Davis Mountains State Park

I’m glad to have finally smelled creosote after a rain, seen desert arroyos and box canyons, explored a tinaja, seen javelinas, learned the names of desert plants, and had the chance to gaze out at the Chisos Mountains for a week.

We drove across Big Bend and up Texas 118, listening to the remainder of Treasure Island, a book that beats most for adventure, suspense, and a great antagonist in John Silver. There is not a lot out here. Some homes and ranches infrequently dot the arid landscape. Being a born and bred suburbanite makes it hard to imagine a life so remote.

One beauty of a sparsely populated area is being able to see stars. Supposedly there are billions and billions, as Carl Sagan would say, but I only ever saw about 42 in hyper-illuminated Northern Virginia. Here you can see thousands.

After settling in at Davis Mountains State Park, we went over to the McDonald Observatory for a better look at the night sky. The observatory is run by the University of Texas at Austin and is a research facility with a number of great programs for the public. We enjoyed the twilight program at which we learned how the shapes of constellations are continually, though ever so slightly, changing. We learned that there are actually 13 zodiacal constellations — one of the astronomers refferred to them as the overrated constellations. Thirteen ain’t lucky as you may have heard, so ancient folks dropped Ophiuchus — probably due to the awkward name. It is apparently some chap wrestling a snake.

We then participated in a little exercise showing where earth, the sun, and some of the planets and constellations appear relative to each other. Elise got to be Earth. She walked around a central lightpost (the Sun). For each revolution she made, the guy who was Mars had to make half a revolution. The lady who was Jupiter only needed to take one giant step. However, Danine, who was Mercury, had to race around the Sun four times for every revolution Elise made. I kept telling Elise to slow down a bit for the sake of her mother.

Once it was dark enough, we went outside where five telescopes had been set up to observe different objects in the night sky. We saw two star clusters, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Orion Nebula, Mars, and the Pleiades. The Pleiades is also a star cluster. Usually you can see four to six stars with the unaided eye. With the telescope we saw that it is made up of hundreds of stars. Oh, and it’s also the logo on Subarus. See if you can guess what Subaru means in Japanese. Danine and I were partial to the Orion Nebula, which is a vast gas cloud illuminated by the heat of the stars forming within it. Elise liked Mars, which is not red but a mellow butterscotch color.

One of the researchers, Mark, showed us all various constellations and stars. He took a liking to Elise and we learned he’d lived in Falls Church (on Poplar) for a few years in elementary school. He was very generous and gave us a few posters and some cool student and teacher booklets for homeschooling. We will head back there during the day for a tour of the really big telescopes. Elise may still want to be an archeologist, but Danine and I are ready to sign up as astronomers.

Sorry for the technical difficulties. I cut and pasted the same entry twice. You may have noticed that though. I’ve added pictures to the previous three entries as well. Take a look!



The day was overcast, with clouds streaming over the Chisos Mountains and a little rain spitting most of the time. The temperature stayed in the mid-30s. We made the most it and first drove to the Panther Junction Visitor Center where Elise was awarded her junior ranger…patch! The patch was definitely the way to go since it features a javelina wearing a ranger hat and a roadrunner. The same ranger who gave the talk on mountain lions quizzed Elise on her newly acquired knowledge. He then announced to a fairly crowded room the newest Big Bend Junior Ranger.



We posted our previous blogs in Chisos Basin which was just above a thick band of clouds. The fog was dense on the way up, giving the impression of an eerie oblivion just off the road. Our attempts at some of the choice overlooks on the way down the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive were foiled by the fog as well, but eventually we got under the cloud layer and did some exploring.



The Burro Mesa Pour-Off is a one-mile round-trip hike and leads to a dramatic cliff, similar to the one in Pine Canyon. This one is not in forest and the cliff has been worn into a semicircular channel. At the bottom there is shelf about six feet deep and fifteen feet above the base. It would perfectly conceal anyone on it behind the waterfall — if there were a waterfall. Elise and I picked our way up to it. We hoped to see a trickle coming down the cliff, but, alas, the rain has been too light. Then again, we didn’t really want to get caught in a flash flood — certainly not without goggles.



Our chief goal was the Santa Elena Canyon. On the way we saw Harry and Molly long enough for a nice chat and to bestow upon them six excellent chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Just before reaching the trail parking for the canyon, lo and behold! Three javelina were drinking from the puddles in the road. The mythical javelina. The legendary beasts that are supposedly everywhere and yet we had never seen before. They trotted into the brush and we hiked into the canyon happy to have finally spotted the blessed things!


These are probably just animatronic javelinas. Maybe holographs.

The canyon is about 1500 feet straight up on both sides with the Rio Grande flowing at the bottom through a strip of sandy grassland. You can see the cut of it from miles away. We had the whole thing to ourselves. You can’t help but speak in a whisper there, it is so quiet and still. The canyon is too narrow and its walls too high to possibly capture in a photo (but I took 100 anyway). If I were you, I would come down here and see it for yourself. Tomorrow should be a nice day if you can get the time off work.





I have to stop writing now. Danine is nearly done making her delicious corn soup and the smell is very distracting. I hope you all have a nice time at Santa Elena Canyon tomorrow!

Today dawned cold and blustery. We got some rain during the night and we’re wondering what changes that might bring to the desert. We’re all hoping for some flowers on the cacti, but being the desert neophytes that we are, we’re not sure if that’s a reasonable hope.

Yesterday was our day off from hiking and exploring. Everyone took showers, Elise and I went for a bike ride, there was a little school and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies were made. The highlight of the day came, though, when we took an unexpected walk. Our friends Harry and Molly stopped by and we took them on the nature trail we had walked on the first morning we were here. We saw some interesting fish in the wetland this time along with a few turtles. Elise was the first to spot the water snake but he moved away before we could get a picture. We’re hoping to be able to give the ranger at the visitor center enough of a description that he or she can tell us what kind it was. The snake was not the highlight, however. Our new neighbors (and I’ll tell you that sad story soon enough) had seen a bobcat at the picnic area near the campground and had taken some remarkable pictures of it. As we were walking back from our walk with Harry and Molly, the bobcat crossed the road in front of us and then reappeared shortly with what we think was a rabbit in his mouth. We lost sight of him after that as he went into the brush to eat his lunch but he (she?) was really cool to see! Luckily bobcats are small so Elise wasn’t freaked out by it. Just disappointed she didn’t get a picture.


Elise makes her own fun.

It turns out that wasn’t a problem. When we got back to our trailer, our neighbor handed Elise three 5×7 pictures of the bobcat that he had printed for her. Apparently, he does this a lot for people they meet traveling and it’s not like he had anything else to do. When they came into the campground two nights ago, the steering pump on his Dodge truck blew. There is steering fluid all over the ground here. His truck is still under warranty so he called Dodge. The person on the other end of the line (in Rhode Island) had no idea where Big Bend was and the nearest Dodge dealership is 200 miles away. Very long story short, they have been waiting since 8:00 a.m. yesterday for a tow truck to show up. It finally came. At 1:00 a.m. this morning. They have no idea where this tow truck came from or where it is taking them, but they gamely got in and left their trailer here. Here’s hoping they return.

We will be stopping by the visitor’s center on our way out today to turn in Elise’s Junior Ranger packet. She finished it all and now all she has to do is decide if she wants the badge or the patch. We’ll let you know what she chooses!

We will be exploring the west side of the park today, mostly from the truck with short sojourns to overlooks and maybe an old ranch or two.

Happy Birthday to my cousin Jayme today. Slainte!

Danine and Elise are laying at the bottom of the pour-off.

Today was another big hike, four miles roundtrip. Although this one was shorter than yesterday’s (by .8 miles), we were all more tired at the end of today’s hike. Cumulative effect, I suppose.

Pine Canyon was today’s adventure. To get there, we had to off-road again. This time we had to take Glenn Springs Road about two miles, then Pine Canyon Road another four. Six miles at less than ten miles an hour takes a while! Luckily we had Treasure Island playing and that helped pass the time.



The Lost Mine Trail and the Pine Canyon Trail basically lie on the west and east sides, respectively, of Lost Mine Peak. The two hikes couldn’t have been more different. The first mile today was through the desert. Cacti, creosote, sotol, and tall grasses all around. (I picked up a walking stick for this hike, too, and Bobby pocketed a couple rocks in case we came across a mountain lion.) The temperature was in the high 50s and when the sun broke through the clouds, we all warmed up nicely. Elise claimed to be tired from the get-go. As a bee buzzed near her she wished it would sting her so we could go home! After walking for about an hour (the minimum you have to hike with Bobby if you want a snack!), we found a tree to rest under in order to refresh ourselves.


A very twisted version of Bobby’s new favorite tree, the Texas madrone

Soon after we started again, we entered a forest that reminded us so much of home that Elise grew nostalgic and mopey. It looked like fall in the Shenandoahs. Tall evergreens and oaks with golden leaves arched over us as we made our way through dried out creek beds filled with colorful boulders. We had left the desert floor and were now at the base of the Chisos Mountains. Fifteen thousand years ago, the climate here was wetter and cooler and the forests extended as far as the Rio Grande. Climatic changes caused the lower elevations to become drier and warmer, leaving the forests only at the higher elevations. The Chisos really are a mountain island surrounded by a “desert ocean”. I don’t ever remember switching environments so quickly or drastically before.


Our truck is no worse for wear after several trips on primitive (rocky) dirt roads.

Our destination was the Pine Canyon pour-off, still another mile up the trail. This uphill was certainly more arduous than walking across the desert floor, but the terminus of the trail was breathtaking. The trail ends, not because there is nowhere else for you to go, but to go there you would have to climb 200 feet up a cliff face. When there is sufficient rain, water pours off the cliff in a waterfall. Today (and most days), it was dry and we had the chance to do some scrambling on the boulders at the base of the cliff. Have you ever seen a movie or TV show where people are in some tropical location and they are all by themselves, swimming in a private lagoon surrounded by cliffs and vegetation on all sides? That was us today. Minus the water, lush vegetation and tropical location. But hopefully you get the idea. We never saw anyone on this hike, from beginning to end. We didn’t see a mountain lion either.


Elise and Bobby pay homage to my brother Shawn.

Anyone that we have talked to about going to Big Bend has told us the same thing: “Make sure you go on Lost Mine Trail.” Being the lemmings that we are, we went today. It’s a 4.8-mile trail, roundtrip. We were hoping to leave around 12:30 for it, but by the time Elise and I finished school, Bobby finished a couple loads of laundry, lunch was finished and we drove to the trailhead, it was 2:00. The guidebook told us the entire trip would take about three hours. Calculating in Elise-time, we figured it would take us four. It actually took us three and a half, and we’re all tired now!



One of the reasons why we wanted to leave earlier in the day was so we could get off the mountain before lions started their “active” time of day, 4:00 p.m. The Lost Mine Trail is in the Chisos Mountains, mountain lion country. Actually, this whole park is mountain lion country, but the tall grasses in the Chisos (many of which are right next to the trail) are a great place for the lions to hide. We learned this, of course, at the ranger talk last night. The ranger talk that prevented Elise from sleeping in her own bed last night. We thought that going to the talk would be interesting and it really was. We learned all kinds of stuff. But the ranger kept talking about how the lions we need to watch out for are the ones that are physiologically impaired or old. No real way to tell which ones those are until you’re attacked, though, so Elise was understandably a little freaked out. Somewhat of a sleepless night notwithstanding, she did an amazing job on the hike today. She kept the pace very well and didn’t seem worried about the lions at all. I, of course, looked in the grasses constantly and picked up a walking stick at the beginning of the trail just in case I needed to whack a decrepit lion on the nose.



The views from the trail are simply stunning. There are no words, really. The folds of the mountains seem improbable and the blue of the sky is one you don’t see in the city. We did notice that some of the far views were fairly hazy due to air pollution, but it just made the distant mountains more mysterious. The ridge we walked once at the top divided Juniper Canyon from Pine Canyon, which we will hike tomorrow.


A friendly father-daughter duo took our picture.

By the time we posted our blogs from the past two days and drove home, it was close to 7:45. Luckily, Elise and I had made a crock pot meal for tonight, so we were able to sit down quickly to our dinner. All three of us ate sleepily and now it is bedtime. Elise has been asleep for about 30 minutes and Bobby and I are right behind her. Good night!