Scenes from the Desert Southwest

Back in November my mother texted me to ask if I was serious about taking a road trip with her to Big Bend National Park in Texas.

I was.

The park had been on my radar for a few years as a possible backpacking destination. With a major construction project set to start in 2025 that will limit access to the scenic Chisos Basin for about two years, the time was right.

I flew into El Paso, where she picked me up and we began our journey to Big Bend’s Chisos Basin Campground. Along the way we stopped at White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks in New Mexico, camping in mom’s RV at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park and the Bureau of Land Management’s dreamy Sunset Reef Campground. A detour thanks to a high wind warning put us in Big Bend’s Cottonwood Campground for a night, giving us a chance to explore Santa Elena Canyon.

My backpacking trip took me over Pinnacle Pass, through the Chisos Mountains and out to the park’s South Rim, where the wind roared along the cliffs all night as it probably has for longer than anyone can imagine. It sounded like sleeping near an ocean with heavy surf. That made me think of the song “Never Ending Happening” by Bill Fay, who passed away in February: “Just to be a part of it is astonishing to me.”