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| Balanced Rock |
Another warm day & cool (52°F) night. While it has been close, I haven't run the furnace yet here at Big Bend.
After breakfast I headed to Grapevine Hills Road & Balanced Rock. A gravel/dirt road in good shape that I followed to the campgrounds at the end (all were empty, but many closer to the highway had RVs or tents). I parked at the trailhead for Balanced Rock, filled my water bottle & headed out. A 2.2 mile round trip with only 80' of altitude gain, most of which was a bit of scramble at the end (and, which I did a bit more of than necessary when I took a wrong turn). The rest was a wide gravel or sand path. Lots of interesting rock formations along the way. Many more photos at today's LakeshoreImages page.
After the 7 mile drive back to a paved road, I headed back to the campground to process the photos. I'll head to the store to post them & the page a bit later.
By the way, one big difference between my winter (December & February) visits to Big Bend are mosquitoes. I never noticed them on the previous visits; this time they are pretty savage! Both mornings & evenings (around dinner time) they are feasting. While they haven't looked like a blanket on my legs like they did at Matagorda, there are enough that you are continuous slapping them, often more than one at a time. The flies also seem to be more numerous, but at least they don't bite.
So far I have not needed to tilt the solar panels. I've been down as much as 40 amp hours by morning (after listening to the XM Radio & making a pot of coffee, but made it up by early afternoon.
Dinner will be an Amy's Mushroom Risotto Bowl.
Until Tomorrow -
But, this is November! My son is an etymologist and I asked him about mosquitoes (he did his thesis on them). He said they were the most unnecessary insect along with ticks.
ReplyDeletethe balancing rocks look almost like Stonehenge.
I have to agree with you on both the mosquitos & ticks, and the flies are a close third!
ReplyDelete