With all this fun going on, who's got time to blog!

Leonard in his volunteer attire. The NPS

dress code says where and when we can

appear in uniform.

When I started this blog, at the urging of a few friends who wanted to hear about our RV travels, I wasn't sure I was up to the task. After all, posting on a regular schedule, or in my case a quasi-regular one, requires some self-discipline. Indeed, my biggest challenge at present is that I'm so busy having fun that finding time to sit down and write posts can be downright difficult. Some might call this a “high-class problem.”

It's mostly the fault of Big Bend National Park's management, really. The policy here – I cannot speak to what happens at other National Park Service sites, just this one – is to allow volunteers to use part of our scheduled “work” time roving the grounds. We are encouraged to hike, wander, drive and otherwise play while getting credit for time spend doing it. How cool is that?

Why does the NPS do this? For one thing, it lets volunteers experience the park from the visitor's perspective so we might better advise folks, especially first-timers who tend to rely heavily on visitor center staff for suggestions on how to spend their time at Big Bend. Sharing something from a book or pamphlet about Trail X is one thing, telling about it from first-person perspective quite another.

An added benefit of this in-service time is that sending uniformed volunteers out into the park augments both capacity and presence of the park's limited field staff, the dedicated rangers and law enforcement charged with aiding and protecting the public.

 

I have posted pictures below from three recent treks Leonard and I made during our in-service time.

 

Happy holidays and best wishes to all!

 

 

Stop #1: The Sam Nail Ranch

The Sam Nail Ranch, one of several stops along the Ross Maxwell Scenic

Drive at Big Bend National Park, has a short walking path through the

property.

The ranch's windmill continues to pump water, which attracts birds and

other animals to the area.

This building offered ranch animals and inhabitants shelter from the elements.

Ruins of an adobe wall stand as a reminder of the bygone era of ranching at the Big Bend.

Stop #2: Cattail Falls

Next stop: a hike to Cattail Falls, one of Big Bend's lesser known treasures.

 

Not much water at the Falls. It's the dry season.

Stop #3: The Chisos Mountains and Pinnacles Trail


This plaque honoring Stephen Mather appears at the base of the Chisos. Mather was a business tycoon and conservationist who used his personal wealth to promote the establishment of the National Park Service.

Hikers on the Pinnacles Trail are rewarded with beautiful vistas, including this view of Toll Mountain, one of the Chisos'

higher peaks.



Nature add a seasonal touch: Mistletoe growing in a tree along the Pinnacles Trail.

The Chisos Mountains are the only mountain range in the U.S. to be entirely protected within the bounds of a national park. People come from all over the world to see this place.



Appetite Peak, so named because when Civilian Conservation Corps workers

helping to develop the facilities in the 1930s complained about the quality of

the food, they were hiking up the hill to improve their appetites.

 

The meaning of "old"

This year I turned 55. It didn't bother me, except for the fact that now I seem to be lumped into a sort of demographic wasteland that says to marketing agencies, “Don't bother going after her business. She's not going to buy the cute little [insert name of trendy new product here] you're selling. She's '55 and over'!”

Not to be outdone, Leonard passed his own milestone, reaching the age of Medicare eligibility. Even Sprocket got into the act, continuing to replace the tan hairs of his youth with an increasing number of white ones.

I don't want to give the impression that any of this disturbs me. It doesn't. Aging beats the hell out of the alternative. It's just that as I grow older, as I watch those around me do the same, I become more aware of the importance of doing what I can now, while body and mind still allow it. The clock's ticking has me thinking about what it means to be “old.” A recent hike at Big Bend National Park shed some light on the matter.

Persimmon Gap Draw leads to this pour off. This wall

transforms into a waterfall when rains are heavy.

Leonard and I decided to explore Persimmon Gap Draw, a little-known trail and one of the few located in the park's north end where we're parked. During the rainy season – July through September – hiking in such areas is ill-advised due to the possibility of drowning in a deluge of water rushing by as it seeks lower ground. However, in dryer times, dry waterways double as hiking trails.

As we strolled down the trail, a rock with some unusual markings caught my eye. Closer examination revealed that it 
contained a fossilized shell. We scanned the area further and soon discovered several others.

Holding those fossils, I couldn't help but think about the organisms whose remains became imprinted in the rock, left behind for all time. When did they live? What was it like here then?

Unidentified fossil. Chrinoid, perhaps?

The answers lie in geological and paleontological research. BiBe's best fossil finds have come from the Cretaceous period, 145.5 to 65.5 million years ago. (In fact, there is so much from the period to study that the men and women of BiBe's science department refer to this as “Cretaceous Park.”) The period began with the emergence of the first insects, modern mammals and flowering plants. It ended with the Great Dinosaur Die Off. Life as we know it came together in the Cretaceous Period.

It was also a time when a shallow sea covered Big Bend, with numerous aquatic life forms that disappeared as the sea slowly receded to the modern day Gulf of Mexico. It is those plants and animals whose impressions remain for explorers to discover, admire and leave behind for the next hiker to find.

 

Gazing upon the fossils we found left me feeling inspired. I was looking tens of millions of years into the past, not decades, centuries or even millennia, but millions of years.

Now that, my friends, is old. Really, truly old.

Still have to identify this one. Any clues?

At last, something I recognize! Just don't ask me to tell you what tree that leaf came from.

A small grove of Texas persimmon trees, from which Persimmon Gap derives its name. Sometime around August, these will be loaded with fruit.

 

Unauthorized removal of anything from a national park is considered

poaching and a federal offense. Take pictures; leave the rest for the

enjoyment of others.