28 October 2005
Hiking Big Bend by Laurence Parent says:
The South Rim is probably the classic hike of Texas. Although the trip is fairly strenuous, almost any Texas hiker worth his or her salt will someday try to hike the South Rim. Few other hikes in Texas can surpass the the quality and sheer quantity of views along the trail. On clear days, the views cover most of the Texas Big Bend country and far into Mexico.
After reading that the gauntlet had been thrown down! We decided we HAD to hike the South Rim! The guide said it was about 13 miles round trip and would take around 7 hours, so we loaded our packs with plenty of water, snacks, hats, sunscreen, lunch and set off.
The day started out with just a few clouds but and as we hiked the Laguna Meadow trail more clouds started rolling in. You can see them rolling up through The Window in the picture taken at the start of the trail.
While navigating the switchbacks we had a really neat experience — as the clouds were rolling up the side of the mountain moisture was condensing out of them onto the pinyon pines — and it was raining under the pines — just under the pines — nowhere else! It was so neat seeing the clouds roll up over our heads , break up when they got to the top, and then reform on their way down the other side — it was kind of like water rushing along and hitting a big rock, breaking up, and then reforming — only much softer and quieter.
We didn’t get the promised views, but what we did get was the whole trail practically to ourselves and an experience like no other! It felt like we were in our own world. It was so peaceful. We did have to watch our step though — there was a pretty good drop off the edge!
Continue the journey here at Part 2: Boot Canyon…