Hiking To The Hot Springs

Two days ago we tried to take this hike and we started too late in the day. We made it to the other side of the campground and turned around. Today we headed out at 8:30 and would have been back by 12:30 if Steve hadn't stopped to talk motorcycles with a group of bikers at the camp store. As I sat in the shade waiting for him, a man came and sat nearby and asked if I'd been hiking. Since I had hiking poles and dusty boots, it wasn't much of a guess. He looked at the bikes and asked if I thought motorcycles were awful. Well … not exactly. There were about a dozen dual-sport bikes parked outside the store, from BMW R1200GS Adventures on down to 250cc Kawasakis. It seems there is a dual-sport rally in Terlingua this weekend. About 200 bikes are expected. Many are already here riding the back roads of the park. Were these guys dirty!



Back to the hike. The trail leads from the campground through the desert and along the river to hot springs (what a surprise). Why would we want to go to hot springs in the desert? Well, it's a nice moderate hike, about 8 miles roundtrip, through beautiful desert scenery. We started in the cool of the morning and soon enough it was hot and then hotter. The trail is rocky and rough going in some places. It winds around several bluffs and across hilly terrain. Since I've been having knee pain (30 years of running perhaps?), I bought some new knee braces before I left. I had seen many hikers, often finishing the Appalachian Trail, wearing these at Baxter State Park in Maine. Combined with two hiking poles, they really helped, especially on the steep downhill sections. The day warmed which is bad and it's good. Bad because it got very hot but good because the snakes take shelter from the heat of the day when they can cook in minutes. After about two hours, we broke out the map. Where were those hot springs? As it turned out, about ten feet away, behind a stand of tall grasses. The springs were warm but not much hotter than you would expect of a concrete pool in the hot sun. Two old and tattooed hippies were soaking away. They were friendly enough but seemed like they'd been in the sun a tad too long.




We crossed paths with a group of about 30 Road Scholars, a tour perhaps for seniors as most people seemed our age or older. Some of the hikers looked very beat and some looked great. They started near the hot springs trailhead (opposite from us) and hiked to near the campground where some took a shuttle back. When I grow up, I want to have the energy and stamina of the ones that went both ways! We went both ways but we went in the cool morning; they were heading back out at noon. Yikes.




By the time we got back to the campground, the day had warmed considerably. We had lunch and the larder is looking bare. We've been at Big Bend National Park for nearly a week and I think it may be time to leave. Next stop the Camino del Rio, another National Scenic Byway.




Photos