Big Bend National Park March 28

March 28. This morning we sent Alex on his way on his Wounded Warrior ride, but we decided to stay for a rest day that my quads are begging for. Everyone has said that Big Bend is the only reason to come to this area, and we shouldn't miss it. This area is more than a little out of the way, and I really doubt we will ever come back, so we are gonna do it. The mountain range has a couple different names that we've never heard of, but they are the very bottom of the Rocky Mountain chain. I've been seeing them way off in the distance for a couple days. We hopped in the Jeep and drove through 70 miles of nothing, just to get to the park headquarters. Then the ascent began. The mountains were all around us, but mostly above us, when we found the Lost Mine Trail. There was no lost mine, but we hiked uphill for two hours, just to get to the top. Boy, was it worth it, bottom to top, and top to bottom. The pictures we took will never do the scenery justice. The trail was 2.4 miles of switchbacks, straight up to about 7,500 feet. Pam was having a little trouble finding oxygen in the atmosphere, and my easy day for my legs dissolved with every step up. We had a great time, however. We ate a small lunch up on top, sucked in the thin air, and walked back down. Pam's legs and my back both passed the test we gave them . We will need to be able to climb a lot more when we walk out of the Grand Canyon in May, so the day was a great success.
When we got back to Marathon, we were planning on going to the Snakebite Saloon, but it hadn't opened for the season yet. We ended up going to a fancy place called the Gage Hotel Restaurant, and we were dusty and way under dressed. They put us in a back corner, and we had a nice dinner, and paid way too much. But the blackberry crisp dessert with ice cream was awesome

On our way to Big Bend - there were yellow flowers all through the desert.

Abandoned ranch buildings

The road was lined with blooming Blue Bells

Parked at the trail head of Lost Mine Trail 

Grave of a woman who lived here in the 1800's - she died at the age of 28 in childbirth with her 4th child.

Yep!  We are going up there!

These signs are for real!

Good place to take a break.

The view gets better and better!

Walking across the top.

Lunch at the top!

Doesn't get much better than this!

Sunbathing with a view!