View from our campsite above Smoky Creek, just before sunrise on Thanksgiving Day 2008.

View from our campsite above Smoky Creek, just before sunrise on Thanksgiving Day 2008.

How did I not make it to Big Bend in 2009?

The legislative session kept me in Austin for the first five months of the year. I went to Colorado in June. The Idaho odyssey occupied August, and I’m still telling that story. There were several work-related trips. I worked out a lot. I put up lots of decorations for Halloween and Christmas. I played with my dog. I even went camping with friends.

Somehow I missed my favorite playground. Since I moved back to Texas in 1997, I’ve only been away longer once, when I tore up my knee skiing. The last trip was over the week of Thanksgiving in 2008, when my buddy Brett and I explored Smoky Creek, the Sierra Quemada (mostly off trail), and Tornillo Creek. The sunrise above was from our campsite, situated above Smoky Creek, on Thanksgiving morning, when we were especially thankful that another friend had arranged for someone to pick us up at the trailhead.

If not sooner, then by the vernal equinox I vow to go back. I miss the desert. The Mesa calls.

Smoky Creek Sunrise, BB08-1127-3128R, Big Bend National Park, Texas | ©2008 Jeff Blaylock

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