The Heinous Truck in the Magnificent Desert - Big Bend 2017

[FJ60Cam]

I'm consulting the charts to try and determine which dimension you guys were operating in...

Thanks to your meticulous verbal and visual documentation, I think it's quite obvious that you stumbled into uncharted territory.

 

[wngrog]

In all seriousness, this place is easy to get to, easy to navigate and within 1000 miles of Jackson.

Put it on the top of your list for a family trip, group wheeling event or a solo trip. It's amazing.

 

[Papalud]

I'm gonna need @Bodean to make some t-shirts for the next trip.

 

[OGBeno]

Fxxxing classic. Totally classic.

 

[Fireman]

What would I ever do without friends like you asshats.

 

[Clutchee]

What would I ever do without friends like you asshats.

Be lonely

 

[Fireman]

Shut up half pint.

 

[BMThiker]

*world travelling half pint

 

[pmccraney]

The odyssey is nearing a conclusion, but there are a couple of pictures/places to show you on the way out. I'll try to be factual (and brief) as we close it down.

Only a small portion of the guale mesa (and the vast canyon below it) were visible from our campsite. We had heard that there was a good vista about a mile or so down the road from our campsite. So, after we packed up our gear, we transitioned over the there and all crammed into a little parking area which fed into a walking trail up the hill:

Coming from Guale 2, my expectations of what was "just over the hill" were pretty low.

It was okay......................... if you are into grand canyon-type views with no other people anywhere near you for miles.

Andy and T Dog checking out Ol Mexico in the distance:

So, yeah, that didn't suck...

 

[wngrog]

Yep. What he said........

 

[Godwin]

Can you imagine owning this huge chunk of real estate?

Big Bend Ranch State Park History — Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

 

[ntsaint]

That overlook really was great. I would think that a sunset there would rival the sunrise we saw at the campsite. May have to find out one day.

Couple pics from that part of the morning.

 

[Papalud]

Can you imagine owning this huge chunk of real estate?

Big Bend Ranch State Park History — Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

I was flipping through my old travel atlas from the '90's (good ole paper map days) with one of my kids last night and noticed it wasn't marked on the Texas map. Had no idea it was that young a park.

 

[pmccraney]

It was very hard to put the magical guale mesa in the rear view mirror, but all good things must come to an end.

At this point, our group split up into the smart ones (me, Nolen, Fireman and Andy) and the not-so-smart ones, who peeled out of the park from here so that they could catch up to (and drive home 15 hours in lock-step with) the front that had blown through the previous night (which had, incidentally, turned into a monsoon once it cleared the desert southwest). There was total carnage on the interstate - 18 wheelers scattered like marbles. frankly, I'm glad they made it safely to the DFW area, where they crashed for the night... And, then, drove home in it again the next morning.

The smart and more-dedicated #eafers went to check out a couple more trails.

A little love for the BBT, since we've given it such a hard time...

 

[pmccraney]

Remember how earlier I mentioned the solitario formation and the flat irons at the bottom of the aerial picture...

Well, at this point we had circled all the way to the south of the solitario, and we were approaching it from the vantage point of the "Chorros Vista" across the canyon. This was our final destination in the state park, and it is literally as far inside the park as you get by vehicle...

The view from this overlook was pretty amazing..

 

[wngrog]

You are going way too fast. Slow down fella. You fast forwarded over a superb trail.

I'll try to fill this in......

 

[BMThiker]

haha, y'all had stickers made.

 

[wngrog]

We left the Mesa as premature Pat said and I started looking at our path across the park to the road that leads to Churro Vista.

I was poking along looking at my trusty map I called Wilson.

Blaylock had left earlier and Bomar started getting antsy too. To his defense, he had been gone 3 days prior to this trip and was cooped up with a dude in his tent and it was time to go.

I was still climbing around taking average pictures and looking forward The a full day in the park.

When Bomar announced he was going to play through , Lou jumped at the opportunity to GTFO as well. He claimed he wanted to visit "family" in Dallas but Lou is an introverted a****** so instead through this that he really just wanted to drive home and wake his ole lady up at 3 am the hard way.

I heard the chatter and just pulled over and let these two play through. Fireman therefore ended up behind me again. I finally got a great picture of his truck.

PMC and Andy were moving slow in the rear and you could just tell they did not want to leave. The night before....before we got so hammered I closed both of them on not rushing the day too bad. I had a plan and the plan was to press it as long as we could so we could still have daylight when we hit Fort Davis and the incredible Highway 17 to the north of it

The road split about where I took the first Drone video and the quitters went north and we turned back East. This is called Rancheritas Loop on my paper map and it's pretty incredible. This sign rang true. This would be the tightest most technical section we traveled to date

 

[wngrog]

haha, y'all had stickers made.

As only the #EAF do.

Andys idea. He buys medallions and s***........

 

[under_psi]

hahahah...

nolen can be funny too.....i do haz family...and was gonna see....really...was on an 'on call' basis.....and i was running out of lotion.....