Big Bend NP trip 04/13-04/15/2007

This weekend, I went on a camping/hiking trip to the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park together with Esther, Hilda and Alex Zavarsky (from Vienna). We arrived Friday afternoon and built our base camp at the Rio Grande Village campsite after hiking the Grapevine Hills trail. The BBQ was tasty and the nightsky pretty impressive. The next morning we packed our stuff (and decided to carry only one tent) and left for the Chisos Mountains Base, where we parked our car. We then hiked the Laguna Meadows trail to the South Rim, where will stayed for the night (@ campsite SW4). We went to sleep early after eating Ravioli and watching the sun set over the Santa Elena canyon from the South Rim. Sunday morning, we got up early, packed our stuff and trash and left for the Pinnacle Trail. On our way back to Chisos Base we made a nice detour to Emory Peak which is the highest peak in Big Bend NP (2534 m). The last part, i.e the summit block, requires some mild climbing and is actually pretty exposed. However, the views from the summit are definitely worth the effort. Altogether we hiked 12.6 miles on the South Rim Trail and another 2.4 miles to the summit of Emory peak. The Chisos Base (our starting point) is at an altitude of 1660 m, so that we had almost 900 m of differnce in altitude. Pictures will follow soon.