Boquillas Canyon Hike 2018

This is our second time hiking Boquillas Canyon, the first time was in 2014 when we camped for a week in the Chisos Mountains.

Boquillas Canyon is about 6 miles from where we live in the park

We typically start our hikes early in the day, since we are here in Summer.  The mornings in Big Bend are beautiful, cool and sometimes breezy.  So, hiking early is the thing to do when it's hot.

Rio Grande overlook about 1/2 mile into the canyon hike

Boquillas is one of the 3 major canyons in Big Bend National Park; the other two being Santa Elena and Mariscal Canyons. According to the Texas State Historical Association, the word Boquillas means "little mouths" in Spanish.  This probably refers to Boquillas Cayon's relatively narrow canyon mouth.

The mouth of the Canyon

There is lots of brush at the beginning of the hike

Hiking in we found the ever-present, hand-made metal art left by Mexicans from across the river. Some of the stuff is really nice and you want to buy it (they leave a jar for money), but the park says it's illegal to do so.  So, no goodies on this trip. Maybe we'll get some in Boquillas (the city across the border) which is legal.

Mexican trinkets for sale along the trail

We were so lucky this time to see horses in the canyon across in Mexico. Walking along the river we saw a group of mares with their foals.

Another group of hikers in the water started walking towards them and the horses spooked and crossed the river to our side.

A friendly Mexican man met later, named Jesus, crossed over himself, followed the horses and chased them back over to the Mexican side.

When we reach the end of the hike into the canyon where the trail ended at the water, there was a beautiful rock wall I may investigate further next time.

Lava rock wall

Panorama looking back from the end of the trail

You can find the photo album for this trip here. 

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.

Baxter State Park, Mount Katahdin and Google Photos

I don't know if anyone likes Google Photos more than I do.  I'm always creating new Albums and finding new faces in People, it's distractingly fun and always leads to more interesting things to do with your photos and albums.

Baxter State Park and Mount Katahdin

Today Google Photos reminded me what we were doing 1 year ago and created this beautiful collage from that day.

At that time we were winding our way through the North Eastern United States on our 2017 East Coast trip and had just left Acadia National Park in Maine.

On the way to Katahdin Woods and Waters NM

It had already been an amazing trip, and we decided to get as close to Canada as we could and do some hiking before heading down to Lake Placid and Niagara Falls.

While trip planning at Acadia, we read about Mount Katahdin, being the end-point of the Appalachian Trail,

Baxter State Park, surrounding Mt. Katahdin and the largest state park in Maine, and

the newly-minted Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, the last National Monument established by President Obama, which boarders Baxter State Park.

So we decided to head to northern Maine and experience the best hiking Maine had to offer.  We chose a small private park, Katahdin Shadows campground in Medway, Maine, that had pretty good internet so Lupe could continue working online.

As it turned out Katahdin Shadows was a family-owned park and run a lot like a KOA, with lots of things happening at the pool for kids.  They had a luau the weekend we were there.  We really enjoyed our stay.

Our 3 days in the area hiking were amazing.  We got to explore beautiful hiking trails, mountains, rivers, streams, and lakes.

The views were amazing and the air wonderfully clear.

Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument

The next time we head to Acadia NP we will definitely plan a week at Baxter State Park, Mount Katahdin, and the National Monument.

We didn't get all the way up the 5267' Mountain, but we did hike a few miles of the Appalachian Trail.  Until next time!

Here's our Google Photo Album for this part of our trip.