Tubing the Rio Grande

Yesterday was another fun day and I got to see some incredible things. Our dear friend, Alyssa, will soon be departing Big Bend for 2 weeks of school then her next assignment in Sequoia. So several of us have been helping her get ready for the semiannual big move.

Yesterday I helped her plant an ocotillo in her front yard and today I may help with another one. The park plants can only be harvested by rangers and replanted if someone has damaged them. These ocotillos were knocked down by a loony person in a car who was systematically aiming for them. We are hoping that these plants will take root in Alyssa's yard despite the fact that she won't be there to baby them along. In pioneer days, the branches were cut off stuck in the ground and secured with rope or wire. Hopefully each branch would take root and create a sort of living fence. I've never seen an ocotillo fence as pretty as the one pictured below but I have observed that they are very functional. Animals would not cross the fence because of all the heavy thorns! (Images from the internet)

After changing into clothes that could get soaking wet and possibly discolored by the river water, five of us went tubing down the Rio Grande! I like the canoe trips, too, but for a water lover like me frolicking in the water was the most fun! It was just barely warm and sunny enough to enjoy our time in the water, but most of us were goose-fleshed by the end of the trip. (About 2.5 hours!) The current was extremely slow so we also had to paddle a lot to get downriver.

Raymond, the park biologist, was our trip guide. He is always so much fun to be with as he has years and years worth of stories to tell and there are very few questions about the park that he cannot answer.  We saw possible beaver holes in the river banks, checked out some of the "hidden" hot springs, enjoyed watching the adventurous Alyssa and Raymond leap off "jumping rock", etc.

Along the way, I saw little white rocky circles on the underside of some overhanging rocks and asked Raymond what they were. They looked like the remains of barnacles. He told us that they were the old egg deposits of Dobson Flies. After they hatch the pupae drop into the river where they morph gradually in the silty bottoms. They then emerge, crawling up the river bank as hellgrammites, the next stage in their life cycle. The hellgrammmites have big pincers and if you are a hapless riverside camper you might get pinched by them as they emerge at night. Raymond said they hurt but are harmless. Boy are they UGLY!! (Images from the internet)

Hellgrammite - didn't I say they're UGLY?

Dobson Fly

The absolute best thing I saw was a bat drop from the cliffs into the river! I couldn't believe the poor thing fell. Raymond feels he or she may have been a young one. But the bat was eventually able to make his or her way to the rock face and climb carefully (hopefully) to safety.

Hoary bat. The one I saw was not "hanging" but struggled to climb head up the rock face.

We got off the river about 7:00 p.m. and had a wonderful cookout in honor of Alyssa with the visitor center volunteers. I'll miss her as we all go our different directions until next winter. I've got to practice roasting vegetables as she makes the best ever! Well, I'm back to doing wash and stuff today. They are also planning on doing a controlled burn of the invasive river cane today. So if the wind is not too strong the burn will take place and I'll get some cool photos of that, too.

My First Hawk Butt

Walt and I were busy today checking campsites on the East River Road. He was driving and was kind enough to indulge my photo taking, so here are a couple of photos from today. My first hapless subject was a hawk and it was the first time I'd ever caught a hawk butt! Lots of other animal butts have graced my webpage but it is the first time for Mr. Hawk.

As I write this tonight it is 84 degrees, was cloudy most of the day and we had some raindrops on the truck windshield. Nothing measurable but still very nice to see. No official rain since mid-December.

Just checking to make sure my feet are still there! This ocatillo is very uncomfortable to land upon.

Upper Burro Mesa Pour-Off

Today Jane arranged for us volunteers to hike the Upper Burro Mesa Pour-Off. It was a warm day (80s where we hiked, 94 in RGV at the end of the day), but picture perfect. The canyon we hiked was beautiful and no photo I took could capture the height of the pour-off at the end of the canyon. Nancy had hiked it before and they roped down the pour off to complete the lower canyon. Here are some photos and I hope I got everyone's name correct!

Back Row: Julie, Walt, Dennis, Larry  Front Row: Pam, Steve, Bob, Amy, Daisy

Steve blazing trails up high

Pam & Larry in the window.

The Gravel Pit Hot Springs

The 55 mph winds had finally died down today and it was time for some fun! All of us feel very betrayed when the wind spoils our outdoor activities. So after a quick trip to PJ to check mail and send off 2 Netflix videos it was time to explore the hot springs by Gravel Pit. Dennis, a coworker from the visitor center and the Gila, accompanied me to try out his new camera.

Before I left I found a whole flock of turkey and black vultures swarming over a recently road-killed bunny. I had a lot of fun watching the vultures soaring around, one of the vultures with bunny remains trailing from his beak and, lo and behold! A hawk soaring with the pack. He was eventually pecked by the vultures and abandoned what I imagined to be his quest for a free meal!

Spot the hawk on the left?

Hawk and vulture with bunny stuff on his beak. I know - I'm weird!

On to the hot springs . . . .

The hot springs had been rocked in by visitors. Quite interesting - the gravel bubbled with little geisers of sand where the water came to the surface. The last time I saw this area from a canoe on the river there were lots of gambusia fish, but none today.

Soaking my feet til they get pruney!

You can see the sphinx moth if you look closely, but in the next photo I zoom in on him. Cool, huh!

Gave a lift from the parking lot to the RV parking area and guests showed us these rainbows that were just beginning to bloom. Perfect end to the hike!

Ugh . . . more 55 mph winds

Today was a great day to clean house, wash rugs & all the clothes. Especially since the wind had blown in dust since last night! Once again the wind gusts were 55 mph and steadily blew since about midnight last night. My counterparts, Mike and Nancy, were on an overnight hike and they were on my mind when the wind woke me up at 1:30 a.m. They did fine and I picked them up down at Tornillo Creek this afternoon. They said the winds were not as bad where they were hiking and they bedded down in a gravel area so they would not get too pelted with sand.

We still have a lot of people in the park but mostly in the front country campgrounds. One day recently Walt and I patrolled the RGV Nature Trail and were lucky enough to see Matt and Jorge lead the horses out on the same trail. There was a family with kids on the floating rafts used to cross the pond so it was a sight not normally seen by most visitors. The kids were thrilled that I had called them back to witness the officers lead their horses out the trail.

Another day I hiked to a family cemetery and removed 176 cairn that visitors built to mark the trail. I was careful removing rocks since critters often live under the rocks and I did find some interesting ones.

I almost forgot! A tank along Terlingua Ranch Road with about a foot of water, ducks and hawks hunting!

The common black hawks are back at their Daniel's Ranch nesting place.

Lizard on the nature trail walkway.

Jorge leading Apache along the floating walkway.

Matt leading Ringo.

This looks like fun, but it really was not - waiting for a tow truck along East River Road. These folks' truck had broken down and the guy (Jake) was cooking dinner for his mom. This was a 19 hour day for us - 10 of which were this visitor assist from which we got home at about 2:30 a.m.! The tow truck broke down and when they finally gave up it had taken us 4 hours to go 13.5 miles. We were 2 miles from pavement when the tow truck finally just quit. The driver had his wife pick him up and drive him back to Marathon to get a (hopefully) working tow truck. A long day!

Sunset the night of the visitor assist.

A spring in the middle of the desert. Ah!