Fresno Rim Trail Hike Report

 Dateline: February 22, 2013 

(Be warned  - this is a long  post.  Better fill up your coffee cup before you start it. But I couldn't compress all the fun and interesting stuff into anything shorter).

Friday at Big Bend started out in pastel colors as the sun started its day. Today our hike  was the Fresno Rim Trail which starts just past the area in which we hiked on Wednesday. (Louis is working his way across the park, gathering data on each trail for a series of guides on the hiking trails of Big Bend Ranch State Park)

The park has a description of this trail in one of it's newsletters. " This hike is a relatively easy way to access some wild and rugged back county in Big Bend Ranch State Park, including an exciting 700-foot vertical view  of Fresno Canyon and exceptional vistas of the famous Solitario "flatirons" and the mysterious Los Portales. The country around Chilicote Springs is a striking desert landscape.  There are historical ranch remains, hidden springs, striking volcanic rock formations, and beautiful desert vegetation."

The trail did live up to its reputation and was by far, the most enjoyable hike I did. The beautiful, warm and calm sunny weather made for very comfortable hiking, while the scenery was stunning. 

Morning clouds

We had to spend some time at headquarters, since Louis had planned to change camp sites but decided he didn't want to spend several hours moving to save about thirty minutes a day for the next three days. So he had  to pay for his site for another three days.  And Dana, who disappeared for several hours on  Tuesday, had to meet with the ranger for an interview on the incident. (It was a case of him leaving us a message which we didn't see due us detouring off the trail. He turned up about twenty minutes after we reported him missing. He had hiked about ten miles total that day - at age 86!  I sure hope I can grow up to be just like him.)

Our drive was familiar because we only went about a mile further than on Wednesday to the parking lot by George A. Howard's Chilicote Ranch, now with almost no remains.

On the  wide first part of the trail - the trail is much narrower and fainter after Chilocote Springs

Not sure if this is a stressed prickly pear or a purple prickly pear.

This mistletoe was glowing so gold in the morning light, I thought I was seeing blooms

Cottonwoods mark a dry wash and the mostly dry Chilicote Spring

The trail - in places it was hard to follow

It was important to keep watch for cairns that marked the trail - most were on the ground

Dead cactus pads sounded like wooden boxes when I carefully kicked them

Ken taking a break in the rocks - he needed a chair fix his sock, I think.

The only (pieces of) a longhorn we saw

Lunch stop

 While we were stopped for lunch,  a lone bike rider came up our back trail. He turned out to be Bundy Philips, one of the authors of Big Bend Ranch Ranch Biking Guide. He was on a 20 mile ride that had lots of elevation changes.  Definitely a Real Man!  He later continued down 700 feet into Fresno Canyon, rode through part of it and finally came up on the other side.WAY steeper than I'd want to hike.

Phillip Bundy

It was lunch time for bees at this single flower

View right before our lunch stop

Heading out on last bit of hike before reaching the rim

After lunch, the trail got much more rugged with a lot of up and downs that were less than forty feet so don't even show on the topo maps. But this is also where the trail became much more scenic.The trail was so rugged that Bundy had to walk his bike most of the way.  Ken loaned me one of his hiking poles or I don't think I would have made it. Finally we reached a fence which was only a few feet back from the rim of Fresno Canyon. But it was SO worth it. We were glad to see that a fence was across the rim of the canyon.  Otherwise we might have walked off the edge while taking pictures. Some of us did go over the fence for closer views down into the canyon.

 

Louis (middle) is pointing out features and trails across the canyon to Robert (L) and Bundy (R)

Susan and John enjoying a well-earned view across Fresno Canyon

 There are several to many Indian shelters in the Park. We visited a site in the Fresno Canyon where the Indians left hand prints - both made by adding pigment to the hand and pressing into the rock, and by putting the hand on the rock and then blowing pigment around it.  We asked our guide if los Portalas was used by Indians for shelter.  He said that the floor is not even and  thus was never used.

A view across the Fresno Canyon to los Portalas

My favorite picture of the flatirons from the rim

After spending about an hour with us visiting at lunch, during the hike and on the canyon rim, Bundy started down the rugged trail that leads to the floor of the canyon. I was on a ridge overhead and got his picture when he found an aoudad (Barbary sheep) skull.  This invasive species has helped extirpat the native big-horn sheep.  The aoudad rams are bigger and stronger than the big-horns and steal the big-horn harems.  They also may carry disease to the big-horns and compete for the same foods. However the park is reintroducing the big-horned sheep and working to remove aoudads and burros which also are damaging the habitat for the sheep.

Bundy with aoudad skull

Soon after Bundy left us, we gathered ourselves and our stuff back up and started back. Somehow, the trail had managed to get a little steeper for the return trip.

Climbing up on the return trip

But the light was already getting prettier, and I lingered behind the rest.  And with no one behind, reminding me that I needed to move on, I found more and more wonderful stuff to photograph. After several of the pictures, I lost the trail and spent more time trying to find it again.

This butterfly species tormented me all day but I finally caught this one on a mustard species

Fluffy grass - this was very prevalent in our campsite and found along this trail as well

This yucca bloom looked like  painting

Some morning glory?

Eat Me!  ....... Very carefully

My favorite flower - all flowers were widely scattered and only one to a few plants were in bloom

Remains of a stone fence across a valley - probably from the days of sheep/goats

A dry wash near the Chilocote Ranch headquarters - the car was about 100 yards beyond here

I finally caught up and passed part of the group before we reached our cars. There I found Natalie,  Zootie dog, and Dana waiting for us.. Natalie, who had been staying in camp with a left-over cough and fatigue from the flu,  had  hiked in with her chair, because, although this is touted as being the closest accessible place for two-wheel drive vehicles to get to Fresno Canyon, she wasn't willing to drive her car through the last half-mile of the road. Dana had chosen to hike the flatter Chilocote Spring loop.We all decided we needed to have a happy hour so we all went back to camp and found snack foods to donate to the group.  Then Robert serenaded us . Finally we got the energy to cook supper and go to bed soon after it. The almost-full moon was already up when it got dark, but after midnight and early the next morning, I got to enjoy the fantastic night sky, with absolutely no light pollution.

Some of the early snackers- we did leave a little for the rest

Troubadour Robert

Search for the Lost Road at Big Bend Ranch State Park

We spent Wednesday, February 20 trying to find and hike on a road which shows on an old topography map of the area. Louis hadn't taken a waypoint off the map so we just guesstimated on where to start out.  We looked for features in the landscape and figured out where it must go.  Finally, after about a mile of walking, we began to see signs of it. But some of the most fun on the hike was just cutting across the country, which was easy to walk through, then climbing up a couple of hills to see the view from higher ground.

Looking for chert - we found some that was worked in this area

I love seeing how nature arranges garden elements.  The arrangement comes from the weathering of mountains into boulders and rocks, wind blowing in sands and dust, and seeds arriving, some of which find a niche in which they can grow.  Wildlife eats and processes seeds, then plants them beside boulders or under shrubs. Cows and other animals carry seeds from one place to another and some of those places give the seeds a chance to make new plants and new plant combinations.  Each year the area looks a little different as some plants die, and others begin life. And some places are so naturally beautiful, I want to try to recreate the scene, or some of its elements, in a garden. .

An view early in our cross-country hike

A rock garden on top of the first rocky hill I climbed

From this first hill, I was finally able to see a piece of the lost road and we started up it.  Lewis knew our destination was a dammed up pond. We also found places where the gulleys had been blocked to cattle and goats with stone fences. The tops of the hills were rocky enough that goats and cows couldn't cross, so they were used to make huge pastures.

View from hillside

There was one beautiful view after another

Rainbow cactus

Sotol with bloom stalk

 At the end of the road, we climbed the dam,  to find a dry bed.  Some  flowers  and grasses were growing at the edge of the dry pond.  Some some spots were wetter, and held the prints of the longhorn cows, who, by the dryness of the cow patties, had been there several months before.(The park has a small, historic herd of longhorns.) Other places were so dry that the soil had cracked 

Cracked earth

Flowers growing on the edge of the pond

We ate lunch on the far side of dry pond, where there were rock chairs. After lunch, the beautiful, rocky hill behind us beckoned and several of us climbed up it to see the different plants growing on it and to get long views across the landscape.

Our lunch spot

A surprising fern growing on among the boulders on the hill

Louis almost to the to of the hill behind our lunch spot

A look down on the pond

The second agraita - this growing on the rocky hill

Susan taking a rest

On the way back, Lewis again tried to follow the old road to the intersection of the road we  on which we had driven in.  But that end of it had completely disappeared into the landscape.This outing taught me that it is possible to study topographic maps and then travel using landmarks. (As a child, I used to to this all the time, but without maps - I just generally knew where electric lines, roads and streams ran and reoriented myself when I got to them. )  It makes a more fun way to travel, provided you can work your way through the brush.
And John and I decided to again cut across the land to the site of the car.  He had set a waypoint, so, even though we couldn't see the car, we knew where it was  And when we were on higher ground, we saw Natalie leaving. She had hiked on the road until she got tired and then driven back to camp. She had a lingering cough and fatigue from a light case of the flue and spent a lot of time sleeping.

The most amazing thing I found on this hike was this flower - perhaps the smallest I've seen in bloom, other than duckweed.  It was about 100 yards back from the car and was the only plant of its kind I could find in the area. It most looked like a Primula but that is SO not the habitat for them. It was growing in dry, gravely/sandy soil.

A single tiny flower growing in dry gravelly ground

I took the following picture to give an indication of its size. The entire plant was less than a quarter. Sorry for the poor focus.  I got a little closer than my lens would focus.

My next post SHOULD be about the exciting and wonderful tour we took down into Fresno Canyon in  a 4-wheel drive van. But I managed to leave two charged batteries at camp so got no pictures. But, if you visit the park, be sure to take one or more of the tours back into history - both the history of the people who have lived in this canyon, and the history of the earth. At least I did get to go - I wasn't supposed to because the tour only holds six people, but Natalie had had a relapse the day before and was afraid she might be infectious and was really too tired go anyway. So I got her spot. But on Friday, we  took what was my favorite hike to overlook the Fresco Canyon and the Flatirons in the Solitario. My header picture is from our view into the canyon.

Horse Trap Trail Hike

Tuesday morning we were ready to hike the Horse Trap Hike.  We drove to the Sauceda Headquarters,turned left and drove a short ways to the trail head.

I was surprised to find the trails wide and relatively flat.  There are several grades of trails in the park and many of then are open to hikers, bikers and horses.  This was one of the multi-use trails. We expected the trail to be about 4 miles but we decided at the end to walk a little longer to reach a water tank, and then we took a small detour on the way back to look at at a pond that had been dammed up, so we ended up walking a little over five miles. Some of the trails connect or require a short hike off trail to allow you to take a longer hike.

We found the pond was just a dry area with the remains of a pond bed and with a dry stream bed running through it. At some time back,  a big flood breached the dam and now the pond is dry.

The day was mostly overcast but we had a few minutes of brighter light.

Susan and Ken setting off

l

Rock feature

The main plant here is creosote bush, which has tiny, dark, olive-green leaves.  But there are lots of ocotillo,  several species of prickly pear and two clump-forming cacti.And there are many other species of cacti , but they are not as commonly seen. Other woody (and of course, thorny) plants were still dormant.  The cottonwoods, which marked places were the water was close to the surface of the land, were just starting to put out their new leaves. There were also several kinds of dormant grasses. Most of the yuccas were Spanish daggers and some of them were blooming or showing the huge bloom stalk bud.

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Don't know these cacti - do you know?

I think this is strawberry cactus

Some of our group

This is a water-stressed Chisos prickly pear - note the white spines

A lot of the prickly pears had some or all reddish pads due to stress from the two year drought. Many were completely dead.  I carefully kicked dead plant the pads which clacked together with the sound of little wooden boxes colliding.

A group of bikers shared our trail

The spring was dry

Weathering rock

Pila de Gato ( A big water collecting tank that sent water to smaller tanks downhill) via pipes

Natural garden

Lunch stop - this is a stock watering tank.

Robert  roaming off trail

Our leader, Louis

Grass green volcanic ash with other colors of weathered rocks mixed in

Spainish dagger in bloom

Cottonwoods at Horse Trap Spring

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Cottonwoods along dry stream bed

Dogs are not allowed on the trails at Big Bend Ranch State Park so Natalie and Zootie walked the main road and the 4-wheel drive roads while we were hiking.

We saw almost no wildlife, including birds, except for a few turkey vultures. Since we found no surface water,  I think this area currently supports little wildlife. But there are many signs of life here.  We found pieces of chert, some formed into cutting tools by Indians,  old tin cans, signs of cattle pens and watering tanks. And there were many interesting grass seedheads and blooming wildflowers waiting to be discovered within the large, apparently homogeneous landscape. It was a great place to explore at a leisurely pace.