Big Bend

Brett here. A few weekends ago, I had the chance to go to Big Bend National Park with Jeff and Mike. Earlier in the year we decided that we needed to take a camping trip together before we potentially end up in different places for residency.

After an 8 hour drive, we camped at Chisos Basin Campground, which was up fairly high in the mountains. We did a hike called "the Window".

The next morning we were able to do a few more hikes. We started off by doing the "Lost Mine Trail".

My poor attempt at a panorama shot. Hard to capture all the sights in one picture.

Later in the day we walked across the border into Mexico for some lunch. A certain person named Jeff forgot their passport, so he had to stay behind.

Unless you want to swim, you pay a guy $5 to row you across the Rio Grande

Our small but noble steeds.

 I don't think Jeff can ever say we haven't done him a favor. We carried Coca-Cola and a plate of tacos on a donkey, across the desert and the Rio Grande for him.

We then drove across the park to Santa Elena Canyon, which was definitely the prettiest part of the Rio Grande river.

It was a full moon while we were there, so we decided to go on a quick night hike to the aptly named "Balanced Rock ". I'll be honest in saying I was pretty stressed as we drove down this horrendous dirt road through the desert during the night to get to the trail-head, but it was fun.

Mike and Jeff feeling the love.

There you have it. Even though all of us grew up in places with "real mountains" as we sometimes say, we were all amazed by the grandeur of Big Bend, and it was a fantastic trip.