The Marfa Lights!

Are these the Marfa Lights? Nope, these are headlights from vehicles on the highway just north of the viewing area. 

This is the "Marfa Mystery Lights" viewing area, just a few miles east of Marfa, Texas.

The Marfa Lights! For many years, I've heard of them and finally decided it was time to check them out for myself! Once I left Big Bend National Park in south Texas, I decided to spend a couple of nights in Alpine, only 80 miles to the north. I knew that the Marfa Lights viewing area was only a 20 minute drive west of Alpine so I made it a priority to spend one evening there.

As I arrived, I was surprised to find that I was not the only person to visit the viewing area that night. There must have been 20 to 25 other adults waiting to see the lights. And one of those other adults decided that it would be a great idea to carry a bus load of kids out that evening to see the lights also, a bus load of kids that were much more interested in jumping from the railing, screaming, chasing each other and trying to decide if the stars that were visible might actually be the lights that they had come to see. I did my best to tune them out.

So, you may be wondering if I actually saw the Marfa Lights. Yes, I did. It was well after dark when I began to see small pin-points of lights to the south. Sometimes, the lights were white and at other times, they were red. And every once in awhile, the light would change from white to red. I saw it and so did the other adults...I know because I could hear the murmuring in the crowd. As the sky grew darker, the small pin-points of light actually got brighter and larger. They were positioned just at the horizon and, instead of just being pin-points of light, it now appeared to be one single light that had some width to it. The light wasn't as bright as I had hoped it would be and as for the width, I think if I had held my thumb up at arms length, it would have blocked the entire light. But there was no denying it...the light was there!

I took my camera and tripod with me that evening, in hopes that I'd be able to photograph the lights, but it didn't work. Before going out, I had called my nephew, Ron, who, by the way, is a great photographer. He gave me pointers on how best to capture the lights but when he asked about the lens I'd be using, he told me that my lens was "slow" and that it might be difficult to photograph the lights unless they were extremely bright. So my attempts to photograph the lights didn't work. At one point, just to make sure my camera was working and that I hadn't overlooked something very simple, I turned my camera to the highway behind us and took a few shots. I have posted one of those shots for you to see. The lights you see in the photo are the headlights of vehicles zooming down the highway. Even though I failed at getting pictures of the Marfa Lights, I was kind of proud of the headlights photo, since it was my first attempt at nighttime photography.

Just before leaving for the evening, I turned to the short guy with big dark eyes standing next to me, and asked if he thought the lights might be the lights from alien spacecraft. Looking up at me, he responded in a series of clicks and beeps, none of which I understood. I concluded that he must not be from around here and didn't pursue the conversation any further.

Until next time!

One crow and four buzzards!

I'm not familiar enough with Big Bend to recognize the landmarks. I can just tell you that this is a pretty typical view in the desert areas of the park. 

This one, I do recognize. It's the Mule Ears Peaks.

I'll just call this one "Big Bend desert and mountains".

As I've mentioned before, I recently spent a week in the Big Bend area of Texas. With the daytime temperatures starting to soar, most tourists have left the area and only a few stragglers, such as myself, remained. On some of the days, the temperature was bearable, but most were really hot, dry and windy. I wasn't the only one to notice the challenging conditions. One day when I was in my trailer at the RV park in Terlingua, I looked out the window and noticed a worker watering the newly planted trees. He had built a small dike around the base of each tree and would fill it with a few gallons of water before moving on to the next one. No sooner had he left the area before one crow and four buzzards swooped down and landed at the base of the tree and began to drink the water. I realized at that point that I was truly living in the desert!

I'm currently in Alpine, Texas, which is only 80 miles north of the Terlingua area, where I was last week. There is something in this area that I wanted to see for myself. I'll tell you about that soon.

Until next time.

Nothin' works in the boonies!

As I was on highway 118,  just a few miles north of Study Butte, I saw this interesting rock...or mountain...I'm not sure. 

Here's a little closer look at it. 

The wind was kicking up a lot of dust on my first day in the park. This is on the western edge, not too far from Maverick Junction.

Hey! It's been awhile since I've created a new post but I have a good excuse. For the last week, I've been in Big Bend National Park in Texas and had my trailer stationed nearby in Study (pronounced Stoody) Butte. I found that getting online is practically impossible in either location and my phone only worked in a few areas and, even then, it only worked if I held my head just right. So, updating my blog wasn't an option.

Big Bend is a large park with a few main roads and a considerable number of dirt roads. The main east/west road is approx. 50 miles long and stretches from Maverick Junction on the western side, to Boquillas Canyon on the eastern side. From that road, there is a paved road that goes to Santa Elena Canyon, another to the Chisos Basin and a third to Persimmon Gap on the northern edge of the park. And of course, along each of those, there are many other places to stop and explore.

When I first entered the western edge of the park at Maverick Junction, I decided to take one of the dirt roads called Old Maverick Road which is approx. 13 miles long. It is essentially a short cut to Santa Elena Canyon. What I didn't know at the time is that it is 13 miles of dirt road that has a washboard surface and, if you're in a truck with stiff suspension like my F-250, it will beat you to death!!! I didn't think I was ever going to get off that road. Over the next 7 days, I visited Santa Elena Canyon several times but only once did I get there by taking Old Maverick Road.

I left Big Bend this morning and will spend the next couple of nights in Alpine, located only 80 miles north on highway 118. I took hundreds of photos while in Big Bend and will be posting some of those over the next few days or weeks.

Until next time.