8 September 2016
What a day and what a hike. Looking for a day hike for today, I asked the park ranger for advice. When she found I was at Chisos Mountain Lodge, she recommended the Windows. It is supposedly a five mile round trip with a great view. She recommended I do the hike in the morning since the afternoon sun would be beating down on you on the return. What she failed to mention was the return was all up hill!
I loaded my day pack with 2 bottles of water and my water bag with 3 liters, so I knew I had plenty of water for the trip. I took a few energy bars for lunch and a bison bar for protein. I left around 8:40 am and noticed their were some steep switchbacks on the first 0.6 mile. At least they had switchbacks. I’ve been on some park trails where the term is unknown.
As I continued to descend, the grade lessened and there were some flat grades. Every time you turned a corner, the scenery wowed you.
I made it to the bottom to the Windows around 10 am and was feeling pretty proud of myself. The view was amazing. There are two openings onto the desert floor below and a waterfall that dropped 200 feet at the end. You had to be super careful since water had smoothed the rock over the eons and it was quite slippery when your boots were wet.
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Wait! I forgot to mention the bear poop on the way down. The first “deposit” was very, very fresh, as in a few minutes ago. Fortunate as I went down, the other “deposits” were noticeably older, as in 15 minutes and 30 minutes. The last one already had flies. They warn you about bears on this trail and mountain lions.
I rested a bit, had some lunch and began the trail upward. And upward. And upward. I reached the summit and my room around 12:30 pm. I figured it would be midnight with my pace. Steady and slow is the way to go but at the end I had the steep switchbacks. I rested at the top of everyone of those and really drained the water. I can’t imagine how the people passing me going down were going to do on the way back up in the afternoon sun.
My Garmin Etrex said I hiked 6.7 miles with a descent of 945 feet from an elevation of 5447 feet above sea level which meant I also climbed 945 feet. I have to admit, all the practice hikes paid off and I’ve learned six miles is about my limit.
If you’ve never been to Big Bend, it’s a must and I recommend the Windows hike, but begin very early in the morning, like daybreak. Of course, that’s when mountain lions are most active.
