Sorry for the gap. We were largely beyond the reach of electronic and telephonic communications for some time. We are now out of the rebellious and remote borderlands and in the civilization of the county seat and largest City (population 600) of Jeff Davis County Texas.

Of historic note, the town is named for the fort named for the Secretary of War who established it to protect the ranchers who seemed to irritate the local population of Apaches with their intrusion.

We had a great time in Big Bend National Park, but cut short our stay by a few days to escape the heat that became somewhat oppressive near the end. We stayed at the Rio Grande Village. The campground is cooled somewhat by cottonwoods and mesquite, but the temperature reached 100 a couple of times and dropped only to 80 the morning before we left.

We explored the possibility of camping at the Chisos Basin which is a few thousand feet higher, but the campground there had only four sites that would hold our rig and access was difficult. So we retreated here where on our first morning the temperature was 38 degrees.

Big Bend is big. It is largely desert except for the green swathe along the river and the thin pinyon pine and cedar parkland on the high peaks. It is also rugged country with spectacular exposures of tipped blocks of rocks forming ranges thousands of feet high and the volcanic Chisos Range in the center of the park.

A few feet from our campsite was a nature trail that crossed a patch of mesquite and a lagoon created by a spring along the river. The floating trail gave views of the water and the towering cane around it and glimpses of the hills above.

The trail then circled and climbed a small, about a one hundred foot tipped block of rock covered with the Big Bend scrub community of plants including scattered shrubs, lovely long-stemmed and red flowering ocotillo, various green and pink prickly pear cactus, cholla cactus, yuccas, and agave. Virtually every plant in Big Bend is spiny.

We walked the trail almost every evening because as you climb your attention is drawn from the desert vegetation to the land and sky that expands with every step. At the top of the ridge you are treated to a view of a huge expanse. To the west are the Chisos Mountains. The sun sets behind them. To the east the Rio Grande slices through a ridge and vanishes. Above this ridge the Sierra del Carmen Mountains in Mexico tower another few thousand feet forming a wall and high horizon.

One evening we experienced one of the best sunsets of our lifetime. There was a high overcast and the landscape was dull. Then the sun dropped below the dark cloud and illuminated the desert and mountains. It then began to shadow the desert below us. Finally it illuminated only the wall in front of us. We were in the dark. The bright light showed hundreds of bats flying in the twilight over the desert. When the spectacle to the east began to fade we turned around and admired the the black Chisos Mountains, twenty miles away, surrounded by the red, wine, and gray wisps that remained.

Of course we found lots of birds at Big Bend. On our last day in the park we hiked the Blue Creek Trail to find lucifer's hummingbird. The wisp of a bird has flaming violet cheeks, a curved bill, and a forked tail. In the United States it is found in only a few places along the border.

The trail left a high vista and decended to the old long-abandoned Homer Wilson ranch. The trail then follows the canyon up into the Chisos. The region was supposedly wetter in the past, but the canyon is now largely desert at the lower elevations. We admired the cactus and the canyon walls and rock towers where tribuaries join the stream. Like all of the streams in the park, there was no water.

The canyon was lovely at dawn. We searched the blooming ocotillos for birds. We first found Scott's orioles. These are yellow, black, and white, and quite handsome. We found the usual wrens. Finally after a few miles the vegetation changed and oaks began to line the stream channel. Still no hummers. Finally, Chuck spotted a bird on a twig. It was a curved billed humming bird. It turned its head which first appeared dark and the cheeks turned devilishly roseate.

We studied the lovely bird for some time to confirm its identity and moved on. We found it again on our return. It was setting up its spring territory.

We are now camped at Ft. Davis State Park in the Davis Mountains of west Texas. Further north, these are cooler and surrounded by grasslands. We will be here for more than a week. Anne is enjoying the cooler weather.