Two more days here in West Texas.

Monday we went to Fort Davis and the Davis Mountains State Park and Indian Lodge. Then on Tuesday we drove down into Big Bend National Park. Big Bend was very hot and we have the sunburns and blistered feet to prove it (still, always a favorite). Rather than try for full heat exhaustion we have taken today off and rested and relaxed.

An old gas station in Fort Davis – now closed.

Scrub Jay

A Raven’s nest high on a cliff wall, above the Indian Lodge.

In Big Bend, Dennis and an ocotillo in full bloom, off of Old Maverick Road.

Detail of an ocotillo bloom.

The only two cactus blooms that we saw in Big Bend. Big Bend is still in extreme drought and is rationing water for visitors. This is not a good year for the spring bloom in Big Bend.

A Vermillion Flycatcher in Cottonwoods Campground.

Mule Ears.

Apache Canyon with the Sierra del Carmen in the distance, at the border with Mexico. (Try to put a wall up there Donald.)

A tiny flower in the desert. (We have never seen one of these before and don’t know what it is. The whole plant was only about three inches tall.)

Mike and his petrified snake.

Range stock adjacent to our camp site.

Big Bend Blue Bonnets at the side of the road: Spring in Texas.

Spring Break 2016

We left Austin Friday afternoon in a fairly heavy rain storm and stopped for the night in Sonora, TX. Saturday morning we pressed on to Alpine, TX where we are staying in a small private campground just south of town called La Vista RV Park. It gets a pretty high score: small, inexpensive, simple, clean, well-cared-for, quiet, half a day’s drive away from all sorts of fun places. We’ll show you some of them.

Sunrise over Sonora Texas.

Pictures from our first evening at La Vista. Wild Turkeys. Mule Deer – half a dozen staying in the cover. A herd of Javelinas – must have been 20 of them.  And a treetop Mockingbird.

Sunday morning we went for a long hike on Hillside Trail above Sul Ross State University. Although it is said that there is a desk atop one of the hills, we were unable to find it and just wandered the desert hills. By the way, the bird is a Pyrrhuloxia, sometimes called a Desert Cardinal.

Hope you like these. More soon.

We went camping at Blanco State Park for the weekend. It was very nice.

This is Mike and the camping rig

A Spotted Towee

A Cluster of Cedar Waxwings

About forty Wild Turkey crossing a farmer's field near the park

Sunset from our campsite

Our Campfire

Texas Ranch House near the park

Orange Crowned Warbler -  One rarely gets to see the orange crown, but it is there 

Yellow Rumped Warbler - Same story: this angle does not show the rump 

Eastern Bluebird 

House Finch - classic pose of one of my favorite birds 

And our selfie with the cattle just across the fence from our campsite 

We had a great time. It was our first outing in months since I had been sick for much of the Christmas break. But we are hopefully getting back on schedule for more camping. 

Hope you all had a great Valetine's Day - with someone you cared about. 

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Thanks,

Dennis and Mike

Sorry, I forgot these. Maybe I will never stop posting. We'll just have to wait and see.

So this is the last posting for our 2015 trip up the Eastern Slope of the Rockies. It was a wonderful trip. We took over 5000 pictures – over 30 gigs total – and we still keep forgetting some of the details. We did this blog to help us share the trip with friends, but I think it will also serve to help us remember. I think we’ve posted about 160 pictures here.

Mike with wings – Rocky Mountain National Park

Rolling countryside south of Buffalo, Wyoming

Cassin’s Finch – Favorite bird of the trip

Female Mountain Blue Bird – Second favorite bird of the trip

Us in the snow

Walking in the Absaroka Mountains, Shoshone National Forest

Running Eagle Falls – Glacier National Park (yes that is a river coming out of the rock)

Dennis on the trail somewhere

Sunrise at St Mary Campground, Glacier National Park

Mike taking pictures of a Loon on Bow Lake in Banff National Park

Mike in the Snow

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Thanks, and hope you have enjoyed this too,

Dennis and Mike