This park is huge and spread out. Yesterday to get here we drove 39 miles from the highway to the north edge to the park, then 26 miles to park headquarters at Panther Junction, then 20 miles to the Rio Grande Village campground. This morning we drove 20 miles back to Panther Junction and another 9 miles to the trail head.
We chose Lost Mine Trail for our first hike because it was only 4.8 miles long and considered a moderate hike. It took us almost 2 hours to hike up 1200 feet of elevation and 2.4 miles up to the ridge, then over to the mountain, several steep switch backs and along the top of the mountain. Then turn around and come back down at a fast 1 hour walk. For our first time out it seemed rather strenuous to me! But it was a pretty hike and we saw some beautiful scenery. We watched for bears and mountain lions but only saw birds and grasshoppers.
After a picnic lunch we stopped at the Chisos Basin Mountain Lodge and visitor center and had a beer while using their free WiFi. We don’t have any cell phone service, but the park has several WiFi centers that we can use to catch up on news and post our blogs.
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