{"id":1215,"date":"2016-11-24T13:32:08","date_gmt":"2016-11-24T18:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dickeytexas.com\/?p=1215"},"modified":"2022-01-07T13:26:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T18:26:08","slug":"castolon-peak-big-bend-nat-park-nov-14-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dickeytexas.com\/?p=1215","title":{"rendered":"Big Bend and Guadalupe Nat. Parks, Nov, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Castolon Peak – Big Bend Nat Park, Nov 14, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The colorful Castolon peak near the old town of Castolon in Big Bend. The tall succulents in the foreground are Ocotilla (Fouquieria splendens<\/em>) the green leaves are only present when there is moisture in the soil (rain the day before).\u00a0 \u00a0Img 61546 Castolon Bigbend<\/p>\n

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Santa Elena Canyon – Big Bend Nat Park – Nov 14, 2016<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Rio Grande river cuts through the Santa Elena Canyon dividing Mexico (left side) from Texas (right side). The canyon walls are up to 1500ft high. The water is brown from the recent rain.\u00a0 \u00a0Img 61577 Santaelena Bigbend<\/p>\n

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Sean and Karin – Pinnacles Trail, Big Bend, Nov 15, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sean and Karin on a flat section of the strenuous Pinnacles trail in the Chisos Mountains. The trail goes over the ridge in the center of the photo. Emory Peak is right above Sean.\u00a0 \u00a0 Img 61677 Pinnacles Bigbend<\/p>\n

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Bootsprings Canyon,\u00a0 Big Bend Nat Park, Nov 15, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The canyon gets it’s name from the lava chimney that looks like an upside down cowboy boot.\u00a0 \u00a0Img 61704 Bootspring Bigbend<\/p>\n

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Big Bend Nat Park, Nov 15, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This young whitetail buck is getting a drink in Boot Canyon. The Carmen Mountains whitetail is one of the smallest subspecies of whitetail deer in North America and this herd stays in the isolated Chisos mountains.\u00a0 \u00a0Img 61713 Canyontrail Bigbend<\/p>\n

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Texas Big Tooth Maples – Big Bend Nat Park – Nov 15, 2016<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Texas Big Tooth maples were in full fall color in Boot Canyon.\u00a0 \u00a0Img 61776 Canyontrail Bigbend<\/p>\n

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South Rim – Big Bend Nat Park – Nov 15, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After an elevation rise of 2,000ft and about 6.5 miles of hiking you get this view toward the north east from the south rim of the Chisos mountains. You can see the Sierra Del Carmen range on the right side of the photo (about 20 miles away). It is a drop of over 6000ft to the desert floor below.\u00a0 \u00a0 Img 61777 Srim Bigbend<\/p>\n

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South Rim – Big Bend Nat Park – Nov 15, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

View along the south rim of the Chisos Mountain toward the east. You can see the V notch of Santa Elena Canyon in the ridge line on the left in the distance. This exit of the Santa Elena canyon is about 20 miles away. The left side is Mexico and the right side is Texas.\u00a0 Img 61798 Srim Bigbend<\/p>\n

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Emory Peak – Big Bend Nat Park – Nov 15, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A view of Emory Peak from the South Rim. At 7825ft, Emory is the highest point in Big Bend.\u00a0 \u00a0Img 61804 Emerypk Bigbend<\/p>\n

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Casa Grande – Big Bend Nat Park – Nov 15, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunset on Casa Grande as taken from the Chisos Mountain Lodge.\u00a0 \u00a0Img 61813 Casagrande Bigbend<\/p>\n

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Windows – Big Bend Nat Park – Nov 16, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We did the windows trail. The rain water and any snow melt travels down the basin to a window outlet and drops 220ft straight down to the desert floor below. The last 20 feet are as slick as greased glass from the eons of erosive polishing.\u00a0 \u00a0 Img 61870 Windows Bigbend<\/p>\n

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Windows Trail – Big Bend Nat Park – Nov 16, 2016<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Lower portion of the Windows trail (about 5 miles round trip and a drop of 900feet).\u00a0 \u00a0Img 61907 Windows Bigbend<\/p>\n

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The\u00c2\u00a0 Chisos Mountains of Big Bend Nat Park – Nov 17, 2016<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

View of the isolated Chisos Mountains from the desert. The slightly elevated bump in the middle is Emory Peak. The barbed wire like plants in the foreground are Ocotillo (without the leaves).\u00a0 \u00a0Img 62049 Chisos Bigbend<\/p>\n

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Texan Tarantula – Big Bend Nat Park, Nov 17, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A Texan Tarantula (Mygale Hentzii) cruising down the white stripe of the road. We saw several of these guys but did not see the Tarantula Hawk, a big black wasp that paralyzes the spiders and lays eggs in them\u00a0 Img 62057 Bigbend<\/p>\n

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Slim Footed Agave – McKittrick Canyon – Nov 18, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Found a Slim Footed Agave (Agave gracilipes) blooming in McKittrick Canyon of Guadalupe Nat Park. This is a hybrid of the Agave havardiana (Havard Century Plant) and Agave lecheguilla.\u00a0 Img 62102 Slim Footedagave Mckittrickcanyon<\/p>\n

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McKittrick Canyon of Guadalupe Nat Park – Nov 18, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We went to McKittrick Canyon of Guadalupe National Park to see the Big Tooth Texas Maples in color. McKittrick Canyon was once owned by Wallace Pratt who donated the land to become Guadalupe National Park. Pratt worked as a geologist for Humble Oil. There is a nice stone cabin in the canyon once used as a summer home.\u00a0 Img 62103 Mckittrickcanyon<\/p>\n

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McKittrick Canyon of Guadalupe Nat Park – Nov 18, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Img 62113 Mckittrickcanyon<\/p>\n

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Karin in McKittrick Canyon – Nov 18, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Karin taking a break by the stream in McKittrick Canyon while Sean and I take photos. Img 62129 Mckittrickcanyon<\/p>\n

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Texas Big Tooth Maples of McKittrick Canyon – Nov 18, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Img 62153 Mckittrickcanyon<\/p>\n

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Deer in McKittrick Canyon – Nov 18, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This young buck was surprised to see us on the trail.\u00a0 \u00a0Img 62193 Mckittrickcanyon<\/p>\n

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Maples in McKittrick Canyon – Nov 18, 2016.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Img 62204 Mckittrickcanyon<\/p>\n

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McKittrick Canyon Maples – Nov 18, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Img 62220 Mckittrickcanyon<\/p>\n

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McKittrick Canyon Maples – Nov 18, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Img 62257 Mckittrickcanyon<\/p>\n

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Links to more Big Bend photos:<\/p>\n

Big Bend 2020<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Big Bend 2011<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Big Bend 2010<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Big Bend 2009<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Big Bend 2007<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Castolon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hikes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dickeytexas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dickeytexas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dickeytexas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dickeytexas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dickeytexas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dickeytexas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dickeytexas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dickeytexas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dickeytexas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dickeytexas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}