Texas - The Big Bend – Early Spring

Day 6 - March 8^th, 2004

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After yesterdays exertions, we had decided that today would be a relatively gentle one, so a later start saw us at Terlingua Ghost Town, parked in front of the Starlight, and heading uphill behind the town. In 2000 I had seen some great cacti plants there, and hoped to see some again, and hoping that there might be flowers.

Some success, especially with the Mammillaria pottsii and Glandulicactus wrightii, but again my impression of excess drought seemed to be especially apparent here, as many of the plants were shrivelled and lacking in any form of vigour. I know that perhaps the spring rains hadn’t yet had time to fill them out, whereas in November they would have had the benefit of the late summer rains, but somehow I don’t think that’s the whole story. The severe drought is having an effect on the endemic populations, without a doubt.

After Terlingua, the next stop was at the Barton Warnock Institute, to check on how the enter the State Park, and to see the exhibits there, which were very educational and well presented. A couple of stops were made before the turnoff to the State Park, at the old movie set beside the river, and at the Big Hill. Great views in both!

Eventually the gravel road turn-off to the State Park came into view, and gradually the road rose way above the river plain. Turning right at the top into the State Park, and unlocking the gates with the combination provided when I bought the entrance ticket, I seemed to be a long way from anywhere, and any people, having seen only one other vehicle since leaving the tarmac road, and that was leaving. Anyway, the gravel road inside the State Park proved to be in good condition, and I spent a very pleasurable time driving along, and stopping where ever I wanted, until I nearly ran out of the established road at the Solitario viewpoint. That was quite isolated, and I can well imagine the joys of hiking into that huge area. But not for this trip, sadly.

On one plant spotting stop, I found a plant with two snow white heads, and identified it as Escobaria albicolumnaria. I have this plant in my own collection, but very clearly the weak British sun gives the plant no chance to develop such a glorious spination as on the plants I found.

On the way back, there were some great sunsets, and our final meal was at the Starlight Theatre, and excellent it was indeed. Afterwards, I stopped outside the reach of lights, and well before Study Butte, and gazed at the sky above. So many stars, so very clear, and amazingly, the Milky Way was not just a blur, but could be seen to be composed of millions of individual points of light, banded across the sky. That itself was worth coming for!

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