Monday, March 6, 2023

Big Bend 2023 Part I

This past week Luke and I spent 4 days in Big Bend National Park with his STEM class and  WHAT A TRIP!  As an 8th grade sponsor I went on this trip last year (it was the first year for the trip) and I was so excited for him to get to experience it this year.  

We were up and at 'em early early on Monday morning - 4:30 am at the school to be exact ;)




We had loaded all the gear into the suburbans the day before so we made sure we had all 18 kids and 8 chaperones and hit the road!


Look what I found in my glove box ;)


Sharon and I have taught together for years.  I've taught her three boys, now she's teaching my kids and she's my partner in crime at MCA ;)  We had a car full of girls who kept us entertained on the 10-hr drive!


We got to the park and had to stop and take a pic at the sign.  Somebody please explain to me why teenage boys do the serious faces in pics!


Teacher besties!!!  Some of my favorite people EVER and we laughed pretty much for four days straight!


I generally leave Luke alone on trips like this but LOVE that Sharon always makes kids take pics with their chaperone parent ;) hahaha


We got to our campsite (Chisos Basin), got things unloaded and set up and then hit the Windows Trail.

Two of three bear boxes... traveling with teens is no joke!!!




The trail descended down into a canyon and ends at a "window" that had the most incredible view.  











It was about 2 miles in and descended about 1000 feet and the two miles back and up was a TREK... especially after being in a car all day!




We got back to camp before sunset and prepped some rehydrated camping meals for dinner...





... watched the sunset...



... and settled in for some star gazing and astronomy talk.


Monday night I was WIPED OUT and fell asleep super easily in my tent BUT there were some crazy wind gusts coming up through the canyon and it was really the craziest thing to hear the wind gust before it came.  Fairly well-rested we were up and at 'em early on Tuesday morning to get prepped and ready to hit the Rio Grande for a day of canoeing. 

We met up with our guides and got the canoes in the water...




... and headed off down the Rio Grande.  We paired kids with experience with those that had less experience or had never canoed and it was fun to get to see them find their rhythm and spend the day on the river.

We canoed for a bit and then stopped for lunch, a hike and some time in the river and a natural hot spring.







Sharon has three sons and her middle, Sam, helped us chaperone the trip. He's a grad student who I taught in middle school (how crazy is that!) and it's always so fun to get to see former students all grown up.  Sam also house sits for us when we travel in the summer and Rosie LOVES him so much! hahaha




So fun to see bluebonnets along the way as well...


The Rio Grande obviously forms the border between Texas and Mexico and we had fun swimming back and forth...



There's a natural hot spring as well which the kids LOVED!



We drove back to our campsites, hung out for a bit and then got dinner started.  Sharon had the kids divided into four groups and each group was responsible for a dinner or dessert, cleaning duties, making a flag, putting together a skit, etc.  

Luke's group was in charge of dinner and they had planned a Taco Tuesday meal...




... and a second group made s'mores cakes...


... after dinner they hung out and played games...



... and we tried to get some more astronomy in despite the cloud cover.


I'll be back tomorrow with the last two days of the trip and I'll answer any questions that y'all leave in the comments as well!  HAPPY Monday, friends!!!


No comments :

Post a Comment

Blog design by Get Polished | Copyright 2016