Lost in the Fog

Remember that weird comment I made yesterday about Big Bend peddling in extremes and saying something about crazy fog and cloud cover? That was not actually crazy fog or cloud cover. Today was those things.

Today’s agenda really had only one thing – a forced march up Lost Mine Trail that I really really really wanted to do and George and Evan graciously agreed to join me.

None of us particularly care for crowds, so I neglected to tell them that the Lost Mine Trail is maybe the second most popular hike in the park, right behind The Window, and both trailheads are in about the same area. We made a late arrival into the park, around noon, and entered a total swarm of traffic. It was Disney World in West Texas. Something about having spent two days mostly on backcountry roads, we’d forgotten that this is Big Bend’s biggest week of the year.

We turned up the road toward Basin Campground and the Chisos Mountain Lodge and as we started the ascent, visibility quickly dropped to almost nothing and we vanished into the fog. Then I saw something I’d never seen before: freezing fog. All the plants along the roadway were covered in ice, but not snow, that was formed as fog flooded the valley and cleared out again – a rhythm we watched through the whole afternoon. From above. But first I had to buy a hat and add more layers because it was so cold.

We drove all the way up to the Chisos Basin Visitor Center, alarmed at the crowds. Why did they let so many people into our park? We actually started back down, ready to abandon my hike in favor of something else, but at the last possible second, I found a small parking area that had two open spaces. The Rover took one, and the Renegade invaded the Xterra’s personal space in the other.

His attempt at trying to not get towed.

But it was enough. We got out and wandered around the fog and ice before starting up the mountain.

It. Was. Brilliance. We started in the fog but climbed up to the top of the world. From Mars itself, we looked down upon valley in every direction and saw the ebb and flow of foggy currents washing through the basin.

And at the top, my phone brought good news! The couple from the Rav4 yesterday had made it back down Old Ore Road onto pavement, which we’d been worried about.

By the time we wandered down, it was time to race back toward Terlingua for dinner and a gas station. We ate well and drank too many Margaritas at a tiny great little Tex-Mex spot. Then we fought in the gas lines at the slowest filling station the world has ever seen. Gas was dispensed in the thousandths of gallons per second.

Back at the hotel, we packed up and put together a list of options for New Year’s Eve. Texas Parks and Wildlife has an interesting set of hoops to jump to jump through to park in Big Bend Ranch State Park.

To make a very long story short, we didn’t make reservations in advance because the National Park wouldn’t take them. Then the Government shutdown because Washington. That left us without accommodations anywhere else and Texas Parks wouldn’t take a reservation today for tomorrow. So I’ve got a list of preferences and I am to call at the crack of dawn to see what we can get for New Year’s. And if we can’t, we’ll… sleep somewhere? I dunno. Find a random motel in some tiny town? We’ll figure it out. But after the amazement of the last few days, I have faith in Texas providing one more miracle night of awesome for us.