April 2019

Five of us (Bruce, George, Terry, Lucas and I) from our Austin photography group visited Big Bend at the end of March for several days. The number of blooming wildflowers, following the previous months’ rains was the best in years, maybe even better than 2015. Click here to see the photos.

I went a day earlier than the rest of the group in order to do some mountain biking and wildflower shooting in Big Bend Ranch State Park.

With the group the next day, our first morning involved an early morning hike to Balanced Rock for sunrise, followed by wildflower shots in the area. The next day started even earlier to capture the Milky Way at Cerro Castelan. We spent the rest of the day exploring the River Road, west to east. The gravel road road is some 50 miles long, and has some unusual scenery and sites along the way, one being the Mariscal Mine.

Another day we hiked from Rio Grande Village to Hot Springs along the Rio Grande, finding nice scenery and many wildflowers. One other hike was in Terlingua Creek, near Hen Egg mountain north of Terlingua. It yielded just a few good wildflower opportunities, possibly because of flooding earlier in the year.

After our Big Bend shooting I stopped at Seminole Canyon State Park on the way home. Located near Del Rio, east of Big Bend, and next to the Rio Grande, the park is home to some ancient petroglyphs.