A Special Kind of Lonesome
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: Elephant Tusk Trail is one of the least utilized designated paths in the Big Bend National Park system, and this lack of use shows in the dilapidated condition it is found in these days. Even some of the cairns…
Three Lonely Bells Toll
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: Through the decades of my wanderings, I have become somewhat known for being able to find two things; water and graves. In that I suppose there is a binding connection as the two represent the opposite bookends in this…
A Lonesome Land of Unexpected Surprises and Occasional Tricks
Where the ponies come to drink…
I’ll Never See It All
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: Stink Spring has been dry for several decades, nothing more now than a brush infested run with some decaying horse troughs amid rusting sections of water pipe. At one time the spring was important enough to be fenced…
There IS Something Out There…
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: The month of December can be a special one indeed. Autumn often comes late to the lower elevations and when the rains come just right, the scenery can be breathtaking. Some might think this was taken somewhere along the…
Christmas Memories of Lajitas Trading Post
Once Upon a Time, What Might Have Been
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: Below Carousel Mountain and off the Dodson Trail runs an ancient path few know of and even fewer venture upon. To me it is ‘The Shortcut,’ a rather unpoetic moniker for a route that has likely felt the impact…
The Desert is a Harsh Mistress
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: Nearly sixty years ago, the great science fiction novelist Robert A. Heinlein penned a story entitled ‘The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.’ Well, this desert is too; even for us whom others might consider this setting being our second…
A Land Worth Dying For…
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: “It’s a grand country, boys, and it’s land worth dying for.” Those words from my fourth book came to mind as I stood here, a long way from most anything else other than miles upon miles of a rugged,…