The first picture I have for you to see is this one. It's the Pecos River Bridge, highest bridge in Texas. As you can tell, the Pecos River was a bit dry when we went (usually it's as wide as the canyon).
| On the way to Big Bend, we stopped to rest at Judge Roy Bean's place. They've fixed it up some over the past four years, as in I think they completely rebuilt 90% of it (making for a not-so-authentic look and feel). | 
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| Accompanying Judge Roy Bean's Saloon/Court was the Cactus Garden. I took a picture of the bluebonnets in full bloom (note: the sign says "Texas Bluebonnets"). Aren't they beautiful? | 
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| Further down the road we came to Marathon. There's not much in Marathon, save the train tracks. We were lucky enough to catch this train and hop on for a few miles--er.. We were lucky enough to catch this train as it went by for a photo-op (read the trip account to learn about the pennies we wanted to flatten). | 
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Here is our campsite--the whole shebang. You can see Paul walking into the depth of the frame--he was taking some pictures, too, and I managed to capture him in mine.
| Here again is our campsite. In the background you see Casa Grande, a rather prominent feature of the Basin. Hidden from view in this picture is Jeff's dad's truck, the covered porch, and the bear-proof food storage box. | 
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| This is me, obviously, doing one of my famous self-shots. Behind me is Casa Grande. I took 4 or 5 pictures of it during this trip alone, and for your benefit I have chosen not to scan in every one. (I mean, two is enough, right?) | 
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| On our hike down to the Window, we stopped a few times to take some pictures. Here we see Jeff and Paul unenthusiastically posing in the manner I chose for them, accentuating the light and dark imagery. Um, yeah. | 
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| Another picture of Jeff and Paul--here they are relaxing under a big rock. Notice how big the rock is. That's a big rock. I mean, Jeff and Paul might not be giants, and this rock certainly puts things into perspective. Rocks are big and last longer than us--to quote a character in Michener's Centennial, "Only the rocks live forever." Um, yeah. | 
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| Jeff and Paul under the same rock, just closer up. Notice the cool features in the rock. | 
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| You're looking through the Window. Since there was no water passing through it during this trip, I was able to crawl right up to the edge, which you're looking at--complete with my finger in the upper left corner. That split in the rock beyond the Window is called the Gunsight, and the mountains in the distance (a little hazy) are the Christmas Mountains. | 
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| If you've read my account of the trip already, you'll remember the part where we came across some javelinas. Well, here's one. For some reason the javelina looks like he's missing some chunks of flesh and fur--that's part of my trick photography. See, the javelina was really 20 feet tall and had huge nasty pointy teeth, and was about to kill us but we escaped at the last minute--what, you don't believe me? Come on, javelinas killed Old Yeller, alright?! What more do you want?? | 
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| It seems that every trip I take into a rocky area, I must prove to my traveling companions and the world over that I can climb any crag. Well, here I am climbing some of the way to Emory Peak. And never mind that the ground was supporting my right leg. See, I was just starting my climb to the top, and Paul had to take the picture right then--he wouldn't have got me in the picture completely if I was midway, because he can't climb with the camera too well.. Look, if you don't believe me, then.. alright alright.. | 
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| Jeff is sitting under a tree. I don't know what kind of tree it is, that's Jeff's job to find out (he's into that biology stuff). This picture doesn't really do justice for the tree--see, it was almost pinkish, and it looked really cool, so we took this picture and the pink didn't come through. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to go to Big Bend and find out for yourself. | 
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| Here's the possum we found on the hike up to Emory Peak. No, it's not dead, it's just resting. At least, it was resting when we came across it. There's no guarantee for its well-being now, because Jeff and Paul refused to do anything for it, saying "Things in nature DIE!" | 
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| Still climbing up to Emory Peak, we paused once again because I saw a great photo-op. Though you can't tell in the picture, we actually had to climb for this picture--I'm not kidding around on this one. Paul was nice enough to take this picture of Jeff and me, but Jeff apparently didn't think it was such a great idea (notice the mock-smile). | 
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| This is the Basin, as seen from the top of Emory Peak. On the right is Casa Grande, that white-ish stuff near the middle is the campgrounds, and off to the left is the Window (out of the picture). |
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| We spent some time up on the top of Emory Peak--I mean, when it takes you a few hours to do something, you want to enjoy it once you've accomplished it, right? Jeff was tired and took a nap. Off in the distance are some mountains, and I'm sorry but I can't remember their names. | 
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| When we finally reached the top, the three of us felt great--it's one of those amazing feelings that's really hard to put into words (that's why I sound stupid right now while I'm trying to describe it to you). Later on, I wanted Jeff and Paul to help me capture the moment of glory we felt by reaching the top. Paul got into it, but it seems Jeff forgot the joy of conquering the crag (notice his mocking gesture). | 
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| One of my favorite pictures I've ever taken is from the last Big Bend trip. It's a sunset picture from inside the Basin, looking towards the Window. I wanted to recreate it this time, and something went wrong and well, this is what I ended up with. | 
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| Here is Santa Elena Canyon (purty, ain't it?) | 
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| Here I am in a bunch of bamboo. | 
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Pictured here is Fort Davis National Historic Site. You can see the storm brewing in the west--the real brunt of the storm came from the south, though, and I was unable to get that on film.
Later on at the state park we drove up to an overlook, and I took a picture of another portion of the storm. This is the storm from the northwest.
| Here's Jeff and Paul at our picnic spot near McDonald Observatory. Unfortunately, this is really the only picture from McDonald Observatory that came out--for some reason, the first chunk of the roll was overexposed. That's a knife that Paul has pointed at Jeff, and there's Jeff laughing. | 
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