Ancient

There are 1,200 square miles inside the national park called Big Bend.  There are a number of things you can see by car but if you really want to see Big Bend you have to take a walk.  Recently that is just what we did.

Along the Ross Maxwell Scenic drive is a pull-out for The Chimneys trail head.  End to end it is about a 7 mile trail right through the desert.  No hills to climb, no sandy-bottom dry washes, no spring oasis' and no shade trees.  However, there is a geological structure, a string of hoo-doos known as The Chimneys, about 2.5 miles out.  The Chimneys are almost worth the walk out by themselves but add to that that there are petroglyphs and other signs of very old human presence and you have yourself a pretty good reason to spend a chunk of your day in the desert.

That's a lot of desert, and there is even more behind the camera than in front of it.

We take off and start down the trail.  It may be flat but it is not like walking in a city park.  The trail is hard-pack and covered in rocks you can feel through the bottom of your boots.  After awhile things started coming into view that would take your mind off the next rocky step.

The rock outcropping ahead and to the right are The Chimneys.

Cyndee taking in the view amongst the creosote bush and ocotillo.

Looking down Santa Elana Canyon from about 12 miles away.

After about another half hour of walking after the above photos were taken, we arrived at The Chimneys.  You could tell this is a pretty popular place, there were lots of little trails around all the outcroppings and someone even climbed on top of one of the higher prominences while we were there.

Our ultimate destination, the lone chimney.

The string of chimneys running north/south, perpendicular to the trail.

An intrepid climber.  She took a couple of photos and we never saw her again.

On the opposite side of our approach to the chimneys was this little window, a nice bonus.

After photographing the window I turned to look back down the trail we had come.  Rather than seeing the trail, a face appeared in the rocks.  It was like a giant profile of a weathered old man just looking out over the desert.  Moving just a few feet in any direction and this image does not exist.  In all our time in Big Bend and all the books and photo archives we have looked through, I have never seen this image.  I'm going to print this one out and show it around to see if anyone knows about this formation.


Can you see the face?

Okay, time to go look for what we came for, petroglyphs.  We worked our way around the base of the single chimney and came across evidence this place was being used as shelter a long time ago.

The solo chimney.  It is bigger than it looks.

Stacked stone wall on the North side of the chimney.

It is not much, but it was home for generations of nomads.

Grinding stone.  One of many scattered around.  The holes are deep, untold amounts of grain must have been ground. 

Shallower but wider grinding stone.

There really are a lot of these around the base of this chimney.

 Working our way around from the west side of the chimney to the northeast we finally spot what we are seeking.  Higher up, images start to come into view.

The above picture is in natural light and below I hit it with a large flash.  Either way, from this distance it is hard to make anything out.

Climbing up and getting closer doesn't really do much for understanding what the symbols are.  Archeologists have not deciphered most of the writings in the park.  They are thousands of years old and there has never been a "Rosetta stone" discovered that would give them the key to this language.

One of the symbols, a circle with a cross in it, must have looked like a target to people passing through.  By the looks of the impact crater, it may have been buffalo hunters with their large caliber rifles.

There are no benches or picnic tables out here, no place to sit comfortably and rest your barking dogs.  We had been climbing all over the chimneys after a 2.5 mile walk in and now it was time to head back.  The trip back was already looking a lot farther than the trip in.

The good thing was that we would be looking in a different direction and all the sights will be different than they were for the walk in.

A familiar landmark from just about anywhere in the west side of Big Bend, Mule Ears.

Looking to the east at the Chisos Mountains

Part of the trail goes through a creosote bush "forest".

I know there is life in the desert but I had a hard time finding it this day.  This moth was the only thing I saw.

We  could see the car parked in the distance, so close yet so far.  And the longer we walked towards it, the farther away it seemed to get.  Our hike was transforming into a march - your left, your left, your left, right, left.  Just get one foot in front of the other and eventually that car will be within grasp.

And finally it was.  Those crummy little seats in the HHR never felt so good.  We got the A/C cranked up and sat and drank what was left of our water then headed for the barn, checked in the car, got in Big Gulp to get us home where we promptly collapsed into what we thought was a well deserved nap. 

You think an old person wrote this?