Lost Mine Trail

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!