Camping At Big Bend National Park 2019 - Day 2, Part 1: The Hike

I'll start with a quick word about our initial impression by the time we had arrived and set up camp.

It was hot (thankfully we were in the hills where it's about 10° cooler than down in the desert - where it reached a high of about 109 while we were there), and bright, with little shade, and a never-ending stream of flies, mosquitos and other flying bugs.  I mean, a ridiculous amount of flying bugs.  When in camp we had to wear insect repellent, which we had brought but hoped we wouldn't have to use much.

Some of the campsites have covered picnic tables, but not all (including ours, which we knew in advance).  We had brought a canopy that attaches to the back of our vehicle or can be set up as a sort of lean-to, but neither application worked:  A.) The campsite was not adjacent to the car - there was a short, curving uphill path to get from the road to the site.  B.)  When not attached to the car the canopy uses two tall poles on one end, with the other end being staked to the ground.  The slightest breeze made this unstable even though we had it staked/tied/secured very well.  In the end we had to pack it up.  Without the canopy I was more worried about the sun than the heat.  As an alternative we moved our camp chairs down by the road under the shade of a tree when we were at camp for any length of time.  The upside of this is that we got to meet the camp hosts as they walked by and who were super-nice.  We had a great conversation with them.

The campsites are non-electric and don't have water.  The bathrooms of course have water and also have a sink area for washing dishes, but they don't have showers (more on this later).  Knowing this in advance, we brought a 5-gallon jerry can and several smaller containers of water.  Turns out we didn't need to worry as about every 5 campsites there was a water spigot for everyone's use with a 5 gallon per-person per-day limit.  This was a definite plus!

Oh, there are also bear lockers at each campsite as black bears call the park home.  We saw plenty of fresh bear scat during our stay, but did not see an actual bear.  We also didn't see any of the other potentially dangerous park wildlife such as tarantulas, scorpions, mountain lions or rattlesnakes.  I felt both relieved and cheated at the same time.

Ok, enough of that.  We got up on this day and planned to hike The Window, a 5.6 mile "moderate" round trip trail.  We had a healthy breakfast of pop tarts, filled up our water bottles and walked to the trailhead which was near our campsite.

Panoramic from the trail leading to the bathroom.  Our blue tent is just visible to the left of center.

Here we go

Not every picture is a winner

But when they turn out right...

This trail had a surprising amount of variation - desert scrub to shaded canopies, canyons and valleys, dry riverbeds to tiered pools.

Todd, for scale

We got a late start, but there were still other people on the trail

The Window.  You do not want to get too close to the edge - the rock is smooth and slippery.

A few other people at The Window.  Todd approaches cautiously.  

Heading back after a rest and a snack

Me, for scale

Ugh, uphill

We made it back to the trailhead

What a great hike!  We'd do it again before the trip was over.

It was about 2 o'clock so we headed back to camp to rest and then do ? for the rest of the day.