View from The Window in Big Bend National Park

It’s been over a week since I’ve done any stamping or posted on the blog, as I was mostly “off the grid” from last Wednesday through Sunday when my husband, my son Matt and I left for our trip to Big Bend in southwest Texas. Hard as it is to imagine, we rarely had a cell phone signal while we were gone. Doing without email and Google Search was a small price to pay, though. As one hiker we met on the trail said, the area’s rugged beauty is every bit as awe-inspiring as the Grand Canyon.

Matt has been hiking in this area since he was in high school, and it has been a goal of ours to hike the trails together. However, after the first day, Ken & I wondered at the wisdom of having a marathon runner as our hiking guide. The truth hit home for me after a 9.5 mile hike over steep, rocky terrain when Matt confessed that he usually made that distance in a morning because he usually RUNS the trails.

Ken & I were proud of ourselves in spite of sunburn and sore muscles, and we would not trade the experience for anything. No picture in Texas Highways can measure up to the feeling of actually standing in The Window and taking in that amazing view.

We left home Wednesday afternoon and began hiking Thursday morning. We hiked six different trails during the trip and took a driving tour over to Presidio Friday for lunch. Everywhere we looked, the views were majestic; Ken and I took over 400 pictures between the two of us. I intend to write a blog post about each day’s hikes, but I promise not to include all 400 pictures!