Family trip to Hereford and Friona, Texas

We received a call from Lupe's parents that one of his great Aunts, one of the women that raised his mother, was very sick and had been moved to hospice care.  After discussing for a moment, we decided to make the trip to Hereford, what is his parent's hometown in the panhandle of Texas. We went to be part of the family gathering for Tia Maria.

Hereford is named for cattle.  According to Wikipedia, Hereford IS the Beef Capital of the World! There are literally thousands of cattle in stockyards, or cattle yards, being 'beefed' up before slaughter. A combination of molasses, hay, milo, and wheat are fed to the cattle as they are kept in small fenced areas so they won't expend much energy.   All roads leading into Hereford have these cattle yards, according to a family member.  So, Hereford smells like cow poop, all the time and everywhere.  You can escape it. That's Hereford.

Family time was wonderful and I (Bert) got to meet many new cousins, another Great Aunt, and other members of Lupe's family.  A highlight of the evening at Tia Maria's home was the Mariachis.  They played for an hour in her living room where she was bundled up in her bed resting, surrounded by the people that loved her the most in the world.  It was a touching and inspiring time with family, experiencing together how life can be celebrated in a joyful, musical way.

During our 3 days there we did get to visit other places in the area.  One was a trip out to see the farm Lupe's father worked on for many years, called the family farm.  The trip wound up being a wild goose chase, venturing around and through many farms that looked that same and like the family farm, and a cell tower, none of which help find the actual 'family farm' :)

So, we moved on to another city trip to visit 'El Campo' in Hereford and to see the Church were Lupe's mother went to school. El Campo is like the La Calonias in South Texas, a place where many Mexican families first move when they arrive in the US.

Our last trip was to visit the grave sites of two of Lupe's family members.  In Friona, his father's father and brother are buried.  We visited those graves, tracking them down using the cemetery's  (very useful) plot map.

Lupe has decided to raise funds with a gofundme to get gravestones put in place for both of these men. We left flowers on the graves.

It was a wonderful trip, even though the reason was not what we would have chosen, to see where Lupe's family spent many years, meet new family and spend special time together celebrating Tia Maria's life. Here's a link to the photo album.

Our first adventure with the new Kayak on the Rio Grande!

Friends Erica and Rudy were camping here in their RV for a few days and gave Lupe a kayak so he could try it out.  Here is the whole photo Album of the adventure with the new Kayak on the Rio Grande!

Excited to get started

Stuck in the mud

Our first off-road trip down Glen Springs Road in Big Bend National Park

We took our first off-road trip here at Big Bend in May 2018.  We'd been here for a month and needed to get off-road and see how the Green Monster, our RAM 1500, would do on the seasonally-maintained back roads of Big Bend National Park.  Our plan was to get off-road as much as possible during our 6-month stay.  So, off we went.

Off-roading is a big deal here with hundreds of miles of roads available for high-clearance and 4-wheel drive vehicles.  The Green Monster is high-clearance but not 4-wheel drive.

As we learned over time, much of Big Bend National park is only viewable from these roads. For example, River Road (East and West) follows the Rio Grande for 50 miles.  At its midpoint, near Tally, it gets you to the third big canyon here in the park, Mariscal Canyon, which is only accessible off-road! And exploring Glen springs now would make it possible to hike Pine Canyon later in our stay.

We started down Glen Springs Road about 7 miles from Panther Junction Visitors Center and then took River Road East to get back to Rio Grande Village (RGV) and the main park road 118.  Glen Springs road is 15.8 miles and the section of River Road we took was 8 miles, for a total of 23.8 miles.

What we found was that Glen Springs Road was relatively easy to drive and flat most of the way.  There always seem to be a few sections of back-roads that are particularly bad. Some examples we've found are washed out (river washes) that drop 1 to 2 feet when you enter them, 30 - 45 degree angled sections that really require 4-wheel drive to climb over and out of, extremely rocky or large rock areas that require that you go very slow or knock out a CV joint, stabilizer or step on the truck, and areas that have not been cleared from brush and scratch both sides of the vehicle.

But Glen Springs did not present problems like this and we feel, for our first off-road trip, that we've conquered a new way to explore the park.

Here are our conquering photos - don't laugh!









As we moved on down the Glen Springs road we did actually find the lush, desert springs down a rather challenging road, which we walked since there was no apparent turnaround.

The spring area was covered by a large multi-trunked Cottonwood tree, probably the largest I've ever seen.   As we approach, it got larger and larger.  You could see this tree from miles away. 

As we've experienced in many areas of Big Bend, as you approach there is just quiet.  The birds are silent waiting to see who the new intruder is, and there is just the sound of the breeze passing through the cottonwood leaves.  It's a moment you treasure each time and you sit for a moment and close your eyes and listen.

large multi-branched Cottonwood tree at Glen Springs

It seems over time the tree had started to lay down, creating even more cover for desert wildlife to take shelter and escape the desert heat.  Large trees create their own ecosystem, and this one definitely had its own with moist areas below, lots of low, protective limbs and towering branches two stories high.

The spring continued to travel in many directions away from the treed-canopy, one flowed into the small canyon just off the road.

We enjoyed the wondrous space mother nature had created at the spring and then moved on down the road to find canyons carved into the land were thousands of years of rainfall forced its way through the desert. The carved canyons presented colorful layers of rock and sediment left from the ocean that once covered this area 90 million years ago.

Stopping for a final view of the lush area and canyons that seem to go on forever our breath was taken away with the Chisos looming miles away.

We then turned left on River Road East, heading back toward civilization and RGV, with the amazing peaks of the Sierra del Carmen mountains in Mexico directly ahead of us.  It was an exciting and memorable first off-road trip for us.  Here's our album with all photos from the Glen Springs trip.

Related articles!

Check out the Blog post on our 2018 Pine Canyon Hike at Big Bend National Park!

Our First 2018 hike in the Chisos, the Lost Mine Trail

Our first hike in the Chisos Mountains during our 2018 stay at Big Bend happened during the two days we were camping at the Basin Campground.  We knew we wanted to hike while up there but weren't sure which one we had time for.  

We did the Windows Trail and (secret) Falls trail in 2014 but never got to the Lost Mine trail.  Lost mine is known for having incredible views of the Chisos most of the way up and that was absolutely true!  The hike took about 3 hours and we ascended about 1800 feet to about 6800 feet in elevation.  

We camped at the Chisos basin campground for two days so we'd be near the hike, and hiked the Lost Mine trail early in the morning to avoid the heat of mid-day.

Here's a photo of the great view from the top. Bliss Moment! 

Here's the photo album of the hike

McDonald Observatory 2018 Visit

We visited McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis on our trip to Big Bend National Park -  where we would work for the Summer.  After leaving Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, we camped at Davis Mountains State Park for the weekend and had Sunday to visit the observatory.

Below is a view towards McDonald Observatory from highway TX-118. Mt. Fowlkes is on the left and Mt. Locke is on the right. The Hobby–Eberly Telescope dome is visible on Mt. Fowlkes and the domes of the Harlan J. Smith Telescope and Otto Struve Telescope can be seen on Mt. Locke.

By Jason Quinn - Own work, Public Domain
from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5507127

McDonald Observatory is a 15-minute drive from Davis Mountains State Park; so the State Park is the perfect place for an overnight stay when you want to visit McDonald Observatory.

Timing is everything when headed to the Observatory if you want to catch a tour, Star Party or Twilight Program. They have scheduled tours twice every day of the week and Star Parties and Twilight programs available Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday (check the tour page for exact details and times).

Entrance patio's Giant Sundial

Since we were there later in the day and on a Sunday we didn't get a tour or Star Party, however, the guide at the visitors center explained the closing times for the 3 main telescopes (5 p.m. I believe), and we were able to do the self-guided tour of the three main telescopes.  

We definitely plan on coming back for tours and a star party or two but just getting to go into the display lobby of the Hobby–Eberly Telescope (HET) was amazing. We were able to do some reading, begin to understand how it all works and view the interior of the telescope.

 Approaching HET, the 10-meter (30-foot) aperture telescope completed in 1997. After an upgrade completed in 2015, the usable optical aperature was increased to 10m. 

A three-dimensional map of our local universe.

HET is composed of 91 hexagonal segments, using a segmented mirror design.  The segments function together as a single curved mirror.  

We were also able to walk around the building containing the Otto Stuve Telescope, the first major telescope built at the McDonald Observatory. 

The wording on the Historical marker outside the Ott Stuve Telescope begins with "Original unit in a complex forming one of the great observatory centers in the world".

Entrance to Otto Stuve Telescope building

Interior shot taken by Jason Quinn [Attribution], from Wikimedia Commons

We also were able to go into the small display room of the Harlan J. Smith Telescope and read about its history. 

Interior of Harlan J. Smith Telescope during a tour, from Wikipedia. 

The views from the top of Mt. Locke were amazing and made us appreciate even more what we have here in Texas at McDonald Observatory. 

And here is the Photo Album of that the visit to McDonald Observatory.