I head down to Big Bend National Park during the March New Moon looking for some dark sky. On the way I stopped about half ways between Dallas and Big Bend at South Llano River State Park just off of I10 near Junction TX. I'll recommend it as one of the better parks to stay at conveniently off I10 in the middle of Texas.
I don't know why but there is always something going on. I arrive at Big Bend around Friday at 2 pm and stopped at the park visitor center to get campsites, but wouldn't you know it, "Spring Break". As I was trying to reserve back country campsites they were reserved from another park center. I finally got a sight down by the Rio Grande near Boquillas. Temperatures were in the 80's during the day but by the river it got down to the 40's at night, and the evening bugs were thick. They didn't bite but were small enough to get through the screens so I had to shut everything up tight.
DSC00158-HDR.jpg by Carl Devendorf, on Flickr
DSC00202-Edit.jpg by Carl Devendorf, on Flickr
My second day was in the desert, the evening was pleasant, nights were cool, but as soon as the sun came up it was hot.
DSC00400.jpg by Carl Devendorf, on Flickr
My plan for the third day was to hike up to the South Rim from Chios Basin about 6mi and 2000 ft elevation. There were only 3 camp sites available and my site was about a half mile from the rim. To get some milky way snots woke up at 4 am the next morning and in the pitch dark hiked out and up to the Southwest Rim. The South Rim was closed for peregrine falcon nesting. Got some good pictures of sunset, the milky way, and sun rise. I traveled vary light, 2 L water, sandwich for dinner, cliff bar for breakfast, 3 lb tent, 1 lb sleeping bag, .5 lb sleeping pad, and 25 lbs of camera gear. Got back to the truck about 11 am and started driving towards New Mexico.
DSC00474-HDR.jpg by Carl Devendorf, on Flickr
DSC00501-Edit-Edit.jpg by Carl Devendorf, on Flickr
DSC00548-HDR.jpg by Carl Devendorf, on Flickr
By Alpine TX I was too tired to drive and stopped at Davis Mountains State Park around 2pm. It wasn't crowded, found a good camp site, and took a long hot shower. The next day was stormy from El Paso TX to Deming NM where someone pulled out and hit the truck on the rear passenger side fender and bumper. Hopefully I'll get a new rear bumper out of the it since it was already bent on the drivers side. Spent a stormy night at City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico.
My plan was to try and get a milky way picture looking up through one of the large antennas at the Vary Large Array telescope near Magdalena NM. Just south of the VLA is forest service land with some good primitive camp sites. I got up at 4 am and drove out to the VLA only to get intercepted by a rent-a-cop and turned away. The telescope has two configurations a small where all the antennas are located on site and a large where they are space out over about 81 sq. mile area, so I might try a go back when its in the large configuration.
DSC00652-Edit-2.jpg by Carl Devendorf, on Flickr
I stayed a couple of days at my home away form home in Santa Fe NM and head out to Capulin Volcano National Monument. It rained the days before and almost got stuck in the mud out on some lonely county road with a good view of the Volcano. I just parked on the road overnight.
DSC00696-HDR.jpg by Carl Devendorf, on Flickr
DSC00718.jpg by Carl Devendorf, on Flickr
