This is the day that in normal years this Road Scholar trip crosses the border into Mexico at Boquillas, but this is not a normal year and the border crossing is closed so on our last day in Big Bend National Park we hiked the 5.6 mile round trip Window Trail in the Chisos Mountains. There is an 800' elevation gain, but there were quite a few shaded areas so not so bad. This was my favorite Big Bend hike.
We hiked through oak, madrone, Mexican Buckeye, cacti, willows, dry river beds, and into Oak Creek canyon before trail's end at the Window.
The window is a slot with a view to the distance, but no trail. There was a trickle of water running over the edge.
While there wasn't a cloud in the sky while we hiked, clouds were definitely moving in and looked threatening while we had dinner at the Chile Pepper Cafe in Terlingua.
Although there was a full moon, we hoped to do some star watching tonight in the 55 minutes or so between dusk and moonrise. Mother Nature had her own plans for the night. By the time we arrived back at the Longhorn Ranch Motel, the sky was almost black except for the bolts of lightning.
One of our fellow Road Scholar travelers, Gail, brought out a bottle of wine to share while we watched lightning bolts dance across the clouds as the storm swept our way. The colors of the sunset peaking out from the storm clouds were glorious. We watched until the overhead clouds opened up and dumped monsoon rains over the hotel. Southwest Texas, like California, really needed this rain as the summer monsoon season had far less rain than normal.
Tomorrow hiking Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.
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