Sometimes You Just Need to Get Away
It was the morning of a fifth day some years back, I was on one of my solitary sabbaticals and had chosen Juniper Canyon as a base camp. This last hike was a somewhat shortened one, I would be pulling out for Ozona in a…
The Endless Beach of Time
On the western fringes of Tule Mountain, above where Alamo Creek winds its way down to the Rio Grande, runs a rim rock of red stone delineating the softer soil above from the exposed whitish ground underneath. Now I am no geologist by any means,...
Is Banta Shut-in Worth the Challenge?
Banta Shut-in is a spot many of heard of but far fewer ever journey to. Several routes lead to its vicinity from all points of the compass, but each to some degree can be like threading the eye of a needle. A topographical map and...
The Desert & the Parched Land Will Be Glad…
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: We had started our trek on the west side of Grapevine Hills, drifting north and zig-zagging to and fro as we made our way along. Though most look out across here and see nothing but harsh, barren terrain, in...
Tough Men for a Tough Land
Anguila Mesa is a special place for me. After all, I spent many of my growing years studying every visible nook and cranny for hours at a time, sitting on the front porch of the Lajitas Trading Post. It was the mesa that provided the...
Glenn Spring Excerpt from ‘Out There: Essays on the Lower Big Bend’
“Glenn Spring surely belongs to that list, though like the others the name has been changed repeatedly even from languages that no longer exist. Human activity in these spots go far into the past beyond the era of the Comanche, Kiowa and Apache, who were…
Banta Shut-In Perspectives
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: Evening was falling in the lonesome country, another day in the desert coming to an end. Soon we would be topping out along a short cut I knew and back to the K-Bar, and the setting sun would be...
Where Many Had Gone Before
We were working our way along the bottom of an escarpment, north of the Buttrill and skirting an enormous flat that goes on for miles. It was another day and another prowl, making a loop through a portion of the national park where few others...
Remnants of an Old Life
A good many folks come to Mule Ears Spring, treading up the park trail from the overlook that ultimately connects with Smoky Creek Trail further east. Sometimes there are so many moving back and forth I feel inclined to avoid the spot entirely, or at…
It’s a Family Tradition
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: Life is an odd thing, full of twists and turns and ironies that we mortals only have the briefest of experiences in. It tends to slip past us way too fast, even when we thought we were paying attention....