Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Big Bend 2023 - Part II

Woke up kind of sore on Wednesday but it was too hard to be mad about that when the view out of my tent looked like this...




Quick breakfast, little meeting and then off to do the Lost Mine Trail hike.  










Lunch at camp and then we drove a little over an hour to the Santa Elena canyon and OH MY WORD was it awesome!!!


Can you spot the kids over there on the mountain?  The regular trail was impassable because of high water so they had to do the "unsanctioned" route which involved a pretty hefty scramble...




CAN YOU EVEN?!?!


Luke's group did their devotion in the canyon and then everyone hiked back out...




Back at camp for the night and we hung out, played games and I helped that night's cooking group prep a HUGE batch of meaty mac ;)



Tuesday night one of the adults saw a mountain lion about 5 feet away from them right by the bathroom (FOR REAL!!! We think that it had to be because it was so windy and maybe it didn't smell him?!?!) and (thankfully!) after a brief stare off the cat made it's way back to the ridge but there was for sure some weapon construction happening at camp on Wednesday night (JUST FOR FUN!)...


.... cracking up that Luke's doubled as a golf club ;)


Thursday evening was cloudy as well but the sunset was STUNNING!!!  That little window through there is where we hiked on the first day.



Thursday night the kids performed their skits and presented their flags and then we sat around after dinner and literally just watched the foxes - so cute!


I woke up at 2:15 in the morning and this was the view from my tent.  How cool is that?!?!


Thursday morning we tore down camp, packed up the suburbans and loaded up for one last hike.


We hiked Balanced Rock and despite the intense wind it was GORGEOUS!













We headed out of the park and the wind was CRAZY!!!  Like tons of gusts that made it hard to even keep the car on the road.  We made it to Marathon for gas and some sandwiches we made out of the back of one of the cars...


... and then drove through some of the craziest winds I've ever experienced coupled with dust storms all the way to Abilene.  Sharon took this pic while I was driving and then literally like 4 seconds later the second one.



Thankfully we had lots of fun conversation and Taylor Swift blaring ;) hahaha  We stopped for dinner in Abilene and then had to wait for a bit since thunderstorms and tornadoes were ripping through North Texas.  


QUITE THE NIGHT but we finally made it back to school around midnight.  WHEW!!!

And ther eyou have it - Big Bend 2023! I'm so glad I got to experience this trip with Luke and am grateful for such awesome coworkers who make trips like this so much fun!






















1 comment :

  1. What beautiful pictures! Looks like y'all had a great time! God sure has created a beautiful masterpiece in Big Bend. I visited Big Bend as a kid, but would love to go back and see it and hike as an adult.

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