Big Bend NP - South Rim, Day 2

1/17/10
Awaking this morning sometime before sunrise, after a restful nights sleep, the first thing I thought to do was walk back over to the rim and watch the sun rise over the desert, and I made it just in time.  After that I had breakfast, which was just granola and tea; packed up camp, and was on the trail again.

With about 6 miles to go today, I continued down the south rim for about another mile, the trail began to turn to away from the rim and start heading back into the mountains towards the visitor center.  This left just one more side of the rim (the southwest) in which the trail only briefly passed by.  After all the amazing views the rim had to offer the rest of the return hike seemed far less interesting, although there were still a few good views and and still was an enjoyable hike.  After a quick stop for lunch, making ramon, I continued on my way, only to realize after a quarter mile that I left my sunglasses on the log where I had stopped.  Lately I have been going through a lot of sunglasses, so in other circumstances I may have been tempted to leave them, but instead I stashed my backpack under some brush and jogged back to get them.

After I had seen everything there was to see and I approached the visitor center I was about ready to be done with this hike and even though my pack was lighter it felt much heavier.  For the last 2 miles I kept expecting the parking lot to be right around the next corner.  But when I finally arrived, as tired as I was, I was still really satisfied with the entire trip and really glad that I hadn't wimped out stayed home.  Back at the car and without the pack I even felt like doing a little more hiking, and decided to head down to the Rio Grande, and check out Boquillas canyon.  

Boquillas canyon is still within Big Bend NP, but is probably about a 45 minute drive away and about 3500 feet lower in elevation then the Chiso basin.  It is a canyon with steep cliff walls that the Rio Grande River enters after flowing unrestrained throughout the rest of the park.  With the change in elevation it was amazing the change in temperature, which was in the mid-60's in the chisos was now in the upper 70's down along the river.  Boquillas canyon is really cool, there is a small Mexican village not too far away, and several Mexicans will sneak over and place locally made crafts and a jar next to the trail, allowing tourists to purchase souvenirs.  And although the trail does not enter the canyon it leads to the entrance where you can see the magnitude of this canyon.  After hiking down by the river in all that heat I was anxious to hop back in the car and crank the A/C at which point I decided to head home for a full day of rest and recovery before going back to work.