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Big Bend Summer 2009 – Day 2

Big Bend Summer 2009 – Day 2

We awoke to a partly cloudy morning , a cool 70 deg and on my way to the restroom, I ran into DJ with a pot of coffee. We chatted for a minute and promised to catch up later. Had a quick breakfast of S&E tacos and readied for our first exploration of the week. Quail Spring, while clearly marked on the topo, had never been visited by me. I wanted to confirm or deny the current state of it and some other springs on this trip. We set off down Green Gulch with the smell of creosote in the air and came across a casualty of the road near the PJ gas station. Little did we know that we would be meeting his VERY alive big brother later in the week(stay tuned).

Continuing to the wash that would take us toward Quail Spring, we parked, descended, and hiked upstream toward our destination. The view of the Chisos from this perspective always makes them seem so compact and so isolated, surrounded by the expanse of arid beauty.

After about 1 mile of east wash hiking, we exited and began a bushwhack we believed would take us through a small canyon on our way to Quail Spring. With the recent rains, the desert was lush with grasses and blooms.

As we passed through this canyon we were surprised to find a small but strong spring flowing down canyon.

We rested a while and continued on, still determined to find Quail Spring. We eventually exited the small canyon and were greeted with a view of Neville Spring with it’s large cottonwoods, and the Grapevine Hills to the west of us.

We entered the wash that supposedly harbored Quail Spring, but despite a determined search, we we unable to find any sign of a current or previous spring. After exiting this wash were we again shown the Chisos, to the south.

Continuing on we circled around a set of low rocky hills and eventually reconnected to the wash the would lead back to the road and my truck. We arrived back at the road about 11:45, and at this elevation (3100′), the temps were already hitting 90 F. We headed back to the Basin to get some food and decide where we were going to spend the afternoon.
Total distance = 5.9 miles. So…. was Quail Spring marked wrong on the map? Or should I just name the one we found– Four-knees spring.

Big Bend Summer 2009 – Day 2

After returning back to the Basin and packing in a little lunch we decided a shower might be a good idea and then a late afternoon drive to Dugout Wells to see if any critters were hanging around the oasis near sundown. As usual the shower at BBMI was GREAT and we stopped in the Basin on the way back before heading to Dugout. Rain was in the air with thunderstorms popping up around the Basin and to the north and West. As we headed down the hill the smell of rain and creosote encouraged us to run around to the west side of the mountains to look at the rain and then head down to Dugout.

The foothills were already greening noticeably in the short 2 days that had passed since the last rain

Big Bend National Park Rainfall
Summer Rain

Dugout wells was quiet with only doves and vultures so we returned to the Basin with heavy rain falling. In the next hour or so up until dark we had lightning, echoing thunder and 1″ of rain. The temperature dropped to 63 F and we ended up sheltering in place until the rain quit and sleep overtook us. The echo of thunder in the Basin is an amazing experience. It’s almost like Dolby surround sound!

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