Sunrise over Big Bend

The 'cooler' weather has held all week, which was wonderful, but the forecast talks about a 'coming back of summer' for the weekend and the rest of next week. Yak! I thought we were done!

So we tried to get an early morning walk in while it's still cool since we haven't done much of those, or of anything, all summer and we're sooooo out of shape.

Nothing spectacular, a moderate, short hike just outside Lajitas, on the Dog Cholla Trail which is part of the 25 mile Multi-Use Contrabando Trail.

In the early 1890s this East Main Trail was part of the supply and stage route that connected Lajitas and the Terlingua Mining District to the Marfa Railhead of the Southern Pacific Railroad located 80 miles to the north.

From the 1890s to the 1950s, prospectors blazed many of the trails in this area in search of cinnabar and Candelilla wax smugglers used them to smuggle the wax to American buyers.

The recent rainfall has coached some wildflowers into flowering (again?) and part of the trail was practically overgrown by grasses.

As usual (for us?) we lost track of the trail within a mile. Well, it might be us, but we feel the trails around here are very poorly marked.

Fortunately the terrain here is very open and we picked it up again shortly before we made the turn onto the larger trail that was bringing us back to the trail head.

                                           

 

Butterflies and dragonflies are everywhere. They seem to try to soak up as much moisture they can get from the wet sand and little creaks between the rocks.

                                           

The Ocotillos are looking almost fluffy now they've sprouted tiny leaves all around their branches.
They're as prickly as ever underneath it though!

Inca Dove

 

shrike

As I've said before, the wildlife isn't really 'in your face' around here but if you look carefully you find enough of it around.

I'm looking at a Desert Millipede there. 'Common after summer rains', my guide book says. Yup!

Funny how your mind works (mine, at least). My hip hurts a little at the moment and I'm just thinking I'm glad I don't have as many legs, and hips, as he!

I was really surprised to see these cacti flowering! Apparently they sometimes have a second bloom in September.

   

A different view from Lajitas Mesa as we hiked around to the other side.

Even closer to home, as in right next to the campground in the wash, I came across these slabs of layered Limestone or flagstone. Nothing special around here but when I looked more closely these were just riddled with fossils.

I had to tread carefully because the stone is very brittle.

 

       
Sea layers of limestone known as the Boquillas Formation (100-95 million years ago) preserved numerous marine fossils all over this area. It shows that Big Bend has not always been a desert land. Oyster-like creatures lived here during the Cretaceous Period. About 135 million years ago, this area was a warm shallow sea that deposited lime mud and housed sea-dwelling organisms such as oysters, clams and snails.

 

On my walks around the grounds I frequently pass this limestone outcropping and although I often find some buzzards sunning themselves at the top, this week I noticed someone else that calls this area home ....

It's a Rock Squirrel. Looking out over his kingdom ....

A big guy (they can be up to a foot long) and from the looks of him a feisty one, with that torn ear.

Just opposite of this squirrel's hill is the brand new residence of our brand new First Citizen Clay Henry!

 

Eh, yes, it's a goat! Remember these cute kids that were born somewhere around the first of the year and that were descendants of the original Clay Henry III?
                                                                


Well, they've all grown up and this summer one of them was elected as the new Mayor.


                                                                      


              
                                            
This is him his-self and behind him you can just see one of the of the horns and a black leg of his wife, the First Lady ;-).
Boy, oh boy, we've really gone to the dogs .....eh, goats, around here!

And last but not least (sorry, Judy) I baked these cute mini apple pies in a muffin tin!
I came across them somewhere on the web and think it's a great idea to each have your own little personal pie, don't ya think?
Very easy to freeze them this way too!