Big Bend National Park

The first time I headed over to the Big Bend area I did not go into the park.  We had an entire day to play on Sunday so we decided to go through the park then head over to Terlingua.  The trip was a pretty cool little preview of the Park and made us all want to go back and go even deeper.

The kids were excited about the mountains.  We had to keep James from rock collecting. He kept coming up to me with a handful of rocks and just dumping them in my shorts. 

On the road to the headquarters there is this cool lookout with a fossil exhibit.  The kids really enjoyed "mountain climbing."

On the road there were these really big colorful grasshoppers.  Its strange to see them walking across the road as your driving.  when we stopped we grabbed one to get a better look. 

There is also this strange looking cactus called a Ocotillo.  some stood over 10 feet high.  It was like a desert tree and had these gnarly barbs. 

 

The sky was really active all around us.  You could see storms miles away.  There are a few places where you have to watch for flash flooding due to storms all around us.  The ridge in the background is facing the Little Christmas Mountains.

As we were leaving the fossil exhibit a storm came racing across the Black Peaks. 

After we made it to the headquarters office we took the road to Terlingua.  This is beautiful road that winds and twists all through the park.  The next image is when the clouds finally start to break apart and show that awesome Big Bend sky.   This is the face of the Emory Peaks.

The trip to Terlingua was fun but we kept hitting spots of rain so the images are limited.  Keep tuned here for more form our trip.