Terlingua/Big Bend, Day 5

Saturday, November 7, 2009.

We awoke early to another beautiful day in Terlingua. I rolled out of bed to get the coffee on, and noticed our other campers up stirring around getting breakfast started.

After breakfast, Ok Hwa and I headed out towards the park to see what else we could find. On the way out of the Chili Cook-Off, we stopped by the front gate to get some pictures of the entrance. It's pretty interesting:

Down in the park, we came upon Croton Springs road. We had never been down there before, so we drove on in for a look. It is a typical unpaved park road, and after about half a mile we came to the end of it at a large clearing, a primitive campsite. A trail led on down from there to a dry creek bed, about a quarter mile away. We hiked down to there, and down the creek bed for a ways, but never came upon a spring. We slowly worked our way back to where we were parked, taking pictures along the way. Back at the truck, we set up the tripod for a few self portraits before heading on:

Back on the paved road, we headed up to the Basin Road, turned onto it, and headed up to the Basin. We had an ice cream at the little store there, then, as usual, walked around taking pictures:

Back in the truck, we headed up the Basin Road, on our way back to Study Butte:

Later, back at the Chili Cook-Off, we had dinner with our friends around the campfire. We had lingered a bit longer than usual in the park today, and it was after dark before we returned. Lucky for us, they had saved us a good meal. We had a great fire, and some good conversations going. After a while the moon rose up over the mountains to the east, and the music started up on the stage down below. After the first act, we all headed down to watch the King Bucks, and do a little dancing. Here's a video of Mark introducing the band, and their opening number:

After a while, we all drifted back up to Margarita Hill, and our campfire. Thanks to the new sound engineers, the music could be heard perfectly up there. It was so comfortable to be relaxing around our own camp while listening to the good music from the stage below. We had some more good drinks and laughs up there, listening to the music, and watching the moon march across the star filled sky. As the fire died down, we said our good-nights, and headed off to sleep.

The King Bucks: http://www.myspace.com/thekingbucks

Terlingua Chili Cook-Off: http://www.abowlofred.com/

Big Bend National Park: http://www.nps.gov/bibe/