Saturday, March 31, 2012

Big Bend National Park - Emory Peak

An early veiw of peak
That's Emory Peak  just to the right of the branches of the tree on the left.

Nice signs
Emory Peak, the highest point in the park (7,825 ft) is one of the big ones.  Our route starts at the campground on the Visitor Center trail (0.5 miles) then the Basin View trail to the Pinnacles Trail to the Emory Peak trail (5.3 miles) for an 11.6 mile round trip hike.

Along the way to the peak
The trail is in great shape and while it is relentlessly uphill for the entire hike, very little of it is steep.  Mostly just a steady uphill climb.

TX Madrone
The Beautiful Texas Madrone.  The Madrone tree sheds it's red bark periodically as it grows

Jay on Emory trail edited 1
Mexican jay

Bluebellies edited 1
The ubiquitous southwestern lizard, commonly referred to as a "Blue Belly",  Note the belly of the lizard just visible in the lower right of the picture.

Flowers in hi places edited 1
Yuccas in bloom on the basin rim.

Fun stones edited 1
Unusual rock seen along the trail.

Gray green and claret
Claret Cup Flower in the pinnacles area of the trail.

Hi atop another rock pile edited 1
View from the top of Emory Peak edited 1
West from the top
At the summit

View of Chisos Basin edited 1
Looking Back into the Chisos Basin, 2.725 feet below, from Emeory Peak

Heading down the rocky trail edited 1
Of course the problem with any 5.8 mile hike to a fantastic peak is you still have a 5,8 mile hike back down when you are done.  When we get down, we will head south to the Rio Grande Village area of the park and some hikes along the Rio Grande.

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