Once again, I woke up before the sun…
And witnessed a spectacular sunrise over the Chihuahuan Desert, with both Texas and Mexico in view.
Everything in the desert seems to want to hurt you. It’s an amazingly inhospitable place.
Maybe that’s why I love it. It continually screams at me to leave, and I, unrepentantly scream back at it, “no!”
Mariscal mine settlement. When you visit this small village (seriously) in the middle of nowhere… it really does make you think about how beautifully tough our forefathers must have been.
This place is so difficult to get to and remote, that few people even nowadays visit. What with our air conditioned cars and four wheel drive.
So I finnally exited the River Road and hit pavement. It’s funny the feeling you get when you’ve only felt super bumpy, unimproved dirt tracks underneath you for two days – driving 20 miles an hour, because if you drove any faster you’d surely bottom out or receive a flat for your insolence and disrespect to the road – finally being lifted up on to the smooth ride of a highway, and potential speed of 65. I love it. Kinda feels like you just won the lottery. Undeserved and glorious. Thankful you made it off that God-forsaken death trap of a road. The reverse can also be true. I LOVE THE RIVER ROAD!!
So I spent the next several hours scouting a few different locations. The first being my evening “epic” Big Bend landscape, that attempts to sum up the place. Tough indeed, if you’ve ever been to BBNP.
The second shot was a night, road photograph I’ve had in my mind on this trip. I got one in RMNP, but really wanted to try one here. I had several nice spots from which to choose.
The third and fourth theoretically could be the same spot. One shot would be in the very early morning hours… a star picture. And the other was a morning “epic” Big Bend landscape.
I finished my scouting with several hours to spare, so I decided to hike to one of my favorite little spots in the park, Cattail Falls.
I always go when water is scarce, so I’ve never come away with the waterfall picture I want, but it’s a great little hike and the only place I’ve ever seen a bear in the park.
By the time I got back, it was late afternoon… time to begin my work for the evening.
I ended up with a few shots I like, so I called it a night… at least get a few hours of sleep. Back up at 4 a.m. to shoot the stars and catch what would be a gorgeous sunrise.
That morning was a sunrise-to-end-all-sunrises. At this point, it was as good a time as any to quit while I felt ahead.
And besides, I was into my third week of being on the road…. living out of my Subaru, eating lots of peanut butter and honey, sleeping alone (an activity I used to love – that I am now quite weary of) on the hard ground.
It was time to go home. Hard to leave, but definitely time.
So I composed my last shots of the desert and mountains of Big Bend National Park, and bid it farewell… this time thankfully, it won’t be so long between visits…
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Big Bend Photographic Tour/ Workshops 2013-2014
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