The Big Bend: Actually Made It This Time. . .

I should have entitled yesterday's post "Towards the Big Bend" or something since we didn't quite make it. The first thing to fill out was the post title and I didn't realize the shots I'd chosen wouldn't get us there. My bad. To make up for it, I'll include a couple panoramas today, gratis.

We really are almost there. This shot is about 9 mi north of the turnoff to Terlingua. I'd heard about Terlingua ever since we moved to Texas and Frank Tolbert began advertising the Terlingua International Chili Championship on TV - or maybe he was advertising his "Bowl of Red". In any case I figured I'd better at least check it out since I was (almost) there anyway. The large roadside rocks on the left are part of the Christmas Mountains, I assume, the primary peak being about 4 mi east.

This one is the farther of the two in the preceding picture, and 3 mi from the turnoff. I assumed it was rock when I saw it from 6 mi back up the road. But, looking at it up close, the first thing that sprang to mind was that it was the largest chunk of petrified wood I'd ever seen. Must have been a hell of a big tree! The longer I stared at it, the stranger it seemed. Red asbestos? Naw. An interesting look anyway. And there were even some (rather scraggly-looking) Bluebonnets alongside the road here. But maybe they'll be healthier in the Park proper.

Here it is - Terlingua. I'm glad it was only 5 mi out of my way. And if I'd been hungry or thirsty or really tired, perhaps I'd have come away with a better opinion. I did see this 4WD - Bronco maybe? It may have broken down and sat there long enough that someone eventually thought it needed to be a mural. Then I thought about Prada Marfa - remember - and, sure enough, through the back window you can see it's in front of Terlingua's Art Gallery. Case solved: west Texas artists will do just about anything to get your attention.

Okay, we've done Terlingua. A little ways south TX-118 hooks a port 90 (that'd be a 90° left turn) around the last of the Christmas Mountains (maybe) and immediately we get a nice view of the Big Bend's Chisos Mountains. They're still a ways off but that's okay, I can do telephoto.

So this is your first of two panoramas of the Chisos Mountains. If I counted right, it's composed of four frames shot at 28mm. I know, 28mm is wide angle not telephoto. But my Canon uses an APS-C sensor so I get to count the crop factor (1.6) for the smaller sensor: that gets me to 44.8mm - still only a "normal" lens. But it looks good, doesn't it? And I just said I can do telephoto.

Alright, I wandered off 20 or 30 ft into the desert and recomposed the shot to include that tall, spindly bush with the red fruit about 1/3 of the way from the left edge - look closer - yes, red. Now this time I only used two frames shot at 47mm. I know, just wait. With the Canon crop factor, the effective focal length is a bit over 75mm. Now medium telephotos run from 67 to 206mm (i.e., 30° to 10° field of view. . . but do you really want to get into that?) I thought not. So this one is a telephoto panorama and I could have just added more frames to cover that entire Chisos Mountains field of view - and it's a freebee - and we still aren't through the Park entrance yet. You're still looking for the red fruit? You did click on the thumbnail for the full size pic, right?

As close as I can figure, this one was shot from my open window .4 mi from the Maverick (west) entrance - almost there! I alluded in the previous post to a minor difficulty which cut my Big Bend trip short. This is as good a place as any to explain, since I'm sitting here playing with my camera while the line's backed up at the Park entrance. With all my planning, I failed to include a review of school calendars. Did you know the whole world was on Spring Break last week? No, I didn't either.

But I didn't let it put me off with respect to the Big Bend. I'm still pleased with the trip and I will go back as soon as I get a chance. But it won't be during Spring Break. We're now 400' from the entrance. There's an RV and two cars ahead of me. I think I'll make it.

Inside - barely! I can't believe all the traffic. National Park stats are online and I've got curiosity to satisfy. March is the busiest month for Big Bend by a long shot (about 45,000 - don't know whether they're counting cars or heads though). July, August, and September have the fewest visitors (each about 1/3 of March's visitors). That suggests to me that maybe it's hot down here in the summer. I'll take it all into account when I go back.

This shot and the previous one were taken on Panther Junction Road headed for the Chisos Basin. It is late. We can pick up here tomorrow. Buenas noches, amigo.