Hot Springs the Long Way

After dressing in shorts and hiking boots, we hopped in the car to drive the 26 miles to the Chisos Mountain except that the peak was covered in clouds and the closer we got, the colder it became.  About half way there I convinced John to turn around as we were not properly clad and we wouldn’t see anything in the clouds.

Once back at the RV we decided to hike the 6 mile round trip over ridges, valleys and desert on the Hot Springs Canyon trail to the same hot springs we saw yesterday.  I especially enjoyed all the spring flowers on the cacti and ocotillo, and the blooms popping up on the yucca.  We got to within 1/2 mile of the springs, high up on a ridge overlooking the river and stopped to have our lunch.  Why go on to the springs when we had just seen them?  We headed back to camp.

We were greeted with sad/bad news when we got back.  The campground host informed us that a county judge had ordered all campgrounds - private and public - to be closed as of noon on Monday March 23.  We had considered moving on Sunday but decided to stay one more day.

Evening falls late in west Texas so just before 8pm we walked out on the river to watch the sun set.  It was a lovely evening.