Canoeing-Camping in Big Bend: Big & Bright

“The stars at night are big and bright, Deep in the heart of Texas…”

This line from the famous song by Nickel Creek has never been more pertinent to the skies of Texas than in Big Bend National Park. Big Bend National park has been named one of only ten International Dark Sky Park’s in the world by the IDSA (International Dark-Sky Association). It is said to have the darkest skies in the continental United State.
            There are many reasons to visit Big Bend, but the most convincing reason to visit? The Milky Way. Yes, you can see the actual Milky Way with your naked eye in Big Bend National Park. Wow, is it a spectacle. As you drive further and further southwest, you can gradually see more and more stars in the wide Texas sky.
            Big Bend may be named an International Dark Sky Park, but with the millions of glowing stars, it is quite bright. Much brighter than a typical Fort Worth night sky. In Fort Worth, the actual sky appears darker in comparison to the many street and city lights, however few stars are visible. In Big Bend, there are no street or city lights. Therefore, the stars and moon look 10x brighter and more visible than normal because they contrast space and the dark mountain backdrop.
             When we were laying down on the river bank sand, gazing up at the stars I didn’t even need a headlamp to see the landscape around me. It was so naturally bright. Laying there for a couple hours, you’d see a shooting star every ten minutes at least. We even noticed the rotation of the earth because of how the stars would disappear behind the mountains in front of us and new stars would appear atop the mountains behind us.

            I was in-awe. One night we even slept without the rainfly on our tent. The top of our tent was mesh so while I was in my sleeping bag I could look directly up to the colorful Milky Way above me. Talk about surreal. I would go back in a heartbeat. Thank you, earth.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Canoeing-Camping in Big Bend: The Flip

            As mentioned in my previous post, the wind on Day Two of our canoeing trip was treacherous and greatly impacted out transportation speed. The current on the river is moderate if you can catch it, but staying with it is the hard part. There are many bends in the river (hence, Big Bend) and if you stick with the current it often leads you towards rocks or the bank. On the topic of rocks, there are small rapids dispersed intermittently throughout the river. The most trouble we had with them was when our canoe bottomed out on the rocky river bed, that is, until “the flip.”             Before we began our four-day trek, Cameron had mentioned that we would canoe through a Class 2 rapid on the last day. I realize now that Class 2 doesn’t sound very intimidating but it still requires some skill and planning to make sure not to flip the canoe. Therefore, I figured the rapids we’d encounter on the ...
Read more

Canoeing-Camping in Big Bend: Leave No Trace

Image
Visitors of Big Bend National Park are asked to adhere to the Principles of Leave No Trace Outdoor Ethics. There are Seven Principles that Leave No Trace is built upon. 1.     Plan Ahead & Prepare 2.     Travel & Camp on Durable Surfaces 3.     Dispose of Waste Properly 4.     Leave What You Find 5.     Minimize Campfire Impacts 6.     Respect Wildlife 7.     Be Considerate of Other Visitors I’ve already mentioned adherences to Leave No Trace (LNT) in previous posts, regarding cooking, fires, and trash. Ground campfires are prohibited in Big Bend for LNT purposes and to minimize the possibility of human-started wildfires.             The policy of Pack It In, Pack It Out, is significant to Leave No Trace. Everything you bring into the park must be brought with you out of the park. This includes foo...
Read more

Canoeing-Camping in Big Bend: Cooking in Nature

Image
          As with any camping trip, all the food we planned to eat had to be packed with us from the start as there are no grocery stores along the Rio Grande where we would be living for four days. There are no stoves, ovens, or microwaves in the wilderness so we had to bring our own gas camping stove and firepan. (Big Bend does not allow typical ground wood fires). Our first outdoor meal—breakfast burritos. We unpacked the folding table, stove, and necessary food-prep items, along with the food itself—eggs, sausage, avocado, cheese, tomatoes, tortillas, hot sauce. A couple people lit the gas stove and cooked eggs in a metal pot while the rest cut vegetables. The eggs burned slightly, but hey, it added flavor. After the sausage was cooked, we each created our own burritos and sat on nearby logs to enjoy the meal together.   Although we tried out best to keep food off the land, a few crumbs of cheese and egg escaped the table. I watched as some frie...
Read more