#41 Road Trip to Texas

                Road trip again, to Texas. The first leg of our trip saw us in San Antonio, Texas. Instead of a downtown hotel, we decided to stay in a neighborhood and booked a tiny house on a local street. The place was charming and gave us a chance to experience minimalist living. The madman said he could get used to living in a small space, but wondered what he would do with all his plants. I reminded him that we had seen a number of cacti, agaves and citrus doing quite well in people’s yards.

                As it turns out, the tiny house was a good choice. Cristina made sure we had everything we needed. She even included Flaco, a dog to sit on my lap when we had coffee on the porch. With the running of the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon, downtown streets were all closed off. We decided to visit the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park and the San Antonio Botanical Garden.

The Missions of San Antonio

                The San Antonio Riverwalk, a pleasant, well-maintained multi-use trail, connects the missions. Good thing we had visited them before because half-a-day is not nearly long enough to appreciate the history, the architecture and the ruins. The acequia system that supplied water to the various missions is itself an engineering marvel.

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San Antonio Botanical Garden

                Then, because we are plant geeks, we visited the San Antonio Botanical Garden. The garden sits on a site that was once a limestone quarry, then a municipal water-works system. Fears of water contamination forced the city to dig artesian wells, so the system was abandoned. It sat vacant until two women, Mrs. R.R. Witt and Mrs. Joseph Murphy conceived the idea of a botanical garden on the site. Today the garden fulfills its mission of inspiring people to connect with the world of plants and understand the importance of plants in our lives.

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                Although the entire garden is beautiful, the madman was most impressed with two areas – the Lucille Halsell Conservatory and the Texas Trails. When thinking of a conservatory, you usually think of a large building with separate rooms that replicate different climates. Uniquely, the Lucille Halsell Conservatory consists of five separate buildings accessed from a common courtyard with each representing a different climate zone. The madman’s favorite exhibit room was the desert Pavilion – guess what kinds of plants live there; the old favorites that make him happy.

Texas Native Trails

                A short walk from the conservatory, found us at the start of the Texas Native Trails exhibit. In this 11-acre section, garden designers were able to create three of the separate ecosystems occurring naturally in the state of Texas. The madman was wowed by the amount of effort required to haul in the appropriate soil and plants native to each system. He was also wowed by the beauty and diversity of the Texas landscape. Since his idea of Texas was formed by watching “Wild Bill Elliot” movies, the madman expected a state landscape of sand and cactus.

                As we wandered the trails, we encountered lots of families. Earlier, the madman noticed that all the Opuntia near paths were spineless varieties. Guess they prefer the children to be curious, not hurt. We were happy to see all these kids enjoying nature and plants: they were having a ball.

Japanese Tea Garden

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                Speaking of families and gardens we discovered another gem at the other end of Breckinridge Park — the Japanese Tea Garden, sited in the remnants of another limestone quarry in San Antonio. This garden is much older than the Botanical Garden. Originally conceived in 1917, it was designed and built around 1920. The stone archways and walkways reminded us a little of Gillette Castle in East Haddam, Connecticut. But, Gillette Castle doesn’t have an 80-ft waterfall. Or a giant Koi pond. Or series of series of stone walkways and arches framing the gardens. No matter, the Victorian architecture reminded us of the castle back home.

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                As the madman stood watching the Koi, he noticed another pair of eyes doing the same. There was a difference. The madman was admiring the beauty of the fish and the pond. The Great Blue Heron was considering his dining options. Surprisingly, the authorities didn’t seem to mind the heron’s presence – Dr. Joe Pavano, a Koi gardener from Connecticut, would never have stood for that.

Time to Move on

                As much as we liked the gardens and missions and history of San Antonio, our goal was to visit one of the most remote national parks in the country. So, we headed west at 80 mph, then south at 70 mph until we left civilization behind. We finally reached Big Bend National Park late in the day only to find ourselves still an hour away from the Chisos Mountain Lodge, our final destination. Remote?, yes. Rugged?, yes. Uncrowded?, yes. Fascinating?, you bet. Perfect spot for the next few days.

Big Bend National Park

                Why Big Bend? For years, the madman listened to friends at the Connecticut Cactus and Succulent Society talk about the wonderful cacti in the park. You must go, they said. Then, Master Gardener Jamie Burgess returned from a birdwatching expedition to the Park. She proclaimed Big Bend “a most wonderful place in the middle of nowhere.” That was the clincher. The madman had to go see for himself and I had to go to keep him out of trouble.

                We expected to find a desert filled with cacti and topped with a couple of mountains for good measure. The cacti were there, the mountains were there, but we found so much more.

Geologic Upheaval

                Big Bend’s charm was created by its geological history. Many millions of years ago, the area was at the bottom of a shallow inland sea. As time steadily marched on, the sea and its prehistoric inhabitants disappeared and the Rio Grande River started to slowly carve its way through the remaining limestone. While this was going on, a giant volcano blew up in the middle of all this, creating the Chisos Mountains and their central basin.

                Today Big Bend is a glorious blend of desert, mountain and river habitats. To make it even better, the area is at the edge of geographical ranges for a variety of plants, animals and birds. What an interesting overlap. The madman was amazed to find agaves growing at the base of oak trees. The topography meant we could mix warm desert hikes with cool mountain hikes. And, just for good measure, we got into a steep canyon or two along the Rio Grande.

Boquillas Canyon

                Speaking of canyons, Boquillas Canyon was our first destination. Standing on the overlook, we caught our first real view of the Rio Grande, a wild and scenic river. It was a strange feeling being at the edge of our country. The madman said, “It doesn’t look any different,” as he waved to two horseback riders on the Mexican side less than 100 feet away (the river is not very wide). Knowing that one side was the United States and the other side Mexico added a charm to our hike up the canyon. We passed through thick stands of bamboo and sandy beaches suggesting that higher water would have made this hike impossible. We followed the trail into the canyon until it ended at a sheer rock wall – to go any further required getting wet, not high on our list of things to do.

                At the other end of the park, we tried to explore Santa Elena Canyon. The trail into the canyon crosses over Terlingua Creek, usually a dry bed. In honor of the madman’s visit heavy storms to the north flooded the crossing. We didn’t want to become statistics, so we were satisfied standing on the edge of the water looking into the impressive canyon. “Something to come back for,” the madman said.

Heading into the Desert

                If we couldn’t explore the canyons, we could certainly explore the desert. As you can imagine, there were plenty of trails heading into the vast Chihuahuan Desert, we couldn’t take them all. We were surprised to learn there were petroglyphs in the park. The Chimneys Trail led to one collection, so off we went. Mid-day temperatures were approaching 80˚ on the desert floor, considerably cooler than the 120˚+ during the summer.

                Along the trail there were so many cactus species the madman was in his glory. He was most surprised by the color variation in the Opuntias. At home, his are green, here they were green, yellow, purple, pink, some with colored spines, some without spines, AND they all grew together. After a couple of hours of hiking through the cacti, yuccas and ocotillos, we came to the chimneys, tall rock formations sticking up in the middle of the desert. At the end of a short side trail we found a wall of petroglyphs, or Native American rock art. On the other side of the art, we found remnants of ancient shelters. What a view they had – no need to cut down trees to watch the sunset. Amazingly, on the way out, we found more interesting plants that we had missed on the way in.

Ocotillos – a New Favorite Plant

                During our road trip to Joshua Tree National Park earlier this year, we had been impressed by the Ocotillos. But, here in Big Bend, they were even more numerous – and they were still blooming – it seems they bloom whenever they feel like it. Actually, they bloom when they get enough water. So, they bloomed in March in California and they were blooming in December in Texas – interestingly, it is still the same Chihuahuan Desert in both states.

The Chisos Mountains

                Towering above the desert landscape, the Chisos Mountains gave us different terrain to explore. Our favorite trail was the Window View Trail. All the rainfall inside the Chisos Mountain Basin runs out through the “window”, a cut in the mountain walls. We have never hiked in a place where oak, pines and willows grew next to cacti, agaves and yuccas. But that’s what we found on the trail.

                To add to the intrigue, it had rained the night before and everything was shrouded in fog. It took a while to get to the actual window and we should have had a spectacular view of the desert far below, but instead we saw a blanket of fog. If the trail had not been so fascinating we might have been disappointed, but nothing in Big Bend is disappointing. We quickly realized that in one trip to Big Bend we would never see all it has to offer – but the madman had to be home to play in a Christmas concert so I sense another road trip in the offing.

Heading Home

                Our trip back to the airport brought us through Amistad National Recreation Area, a man-made lake fed by the Rio Grande. The area has lots of trails and petroglyphs. No time to explore because we had an appointment at Dixondale Farms, home of the madman’s onions. We had a wonderful visit with Emily and Brian and we’ll tell you about it in our next blog.

                Cocoa is ready. Happy New Year!