"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime"-MARK TWAIN

Thursday, January 8, 2015

No Electricity!!

 

Shortly after departing Brazos Bend State Park, we received a message on facebook that there had been a power outage to the Big Bend, Lajitas, TX area.  Didn’t think much of it as we had no plans to be in the area for another week.  We departed Potters Creek on Tuesday morning planning to stop for a night in Seminole Canyon State park before moving on Westward.  Imagine our surprise when checking in to the park, to find that everything west of Langtry, all the way to Alpine, was without power.  Had been since last Saturday, with no gasoline available, or most any other kind of service.  The ice storm had taken down the lines and there were major problems with the restoration effort.  We decided to stay at least two nights in Seminole Canyon and hopefully things would be restored by Thursday morning.

This was our first time in Seminole Canyon.  A nice park with a history going back centuries.  The canyon itself is very nice.

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There are numerous alcoves which provided shelter for various artists of the period.  The one we were hiking to happened to be just a few hundred feet below the visitor center.

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A work rock.  Still slick from all the hands that worked at it thousands of years ago.

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There also are numerous hiking trails up on the plateau which lead to the Rio Grand River.  Sally and I decided to take one of those on Wednesday afternoon.

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Hiked to this overlook of an alcove which contains one of the most magnificent pictograms in the park.  It is no longer accessible to the public.

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A representation in the visitor center.

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Can you see part of it in this cropped picture.  Almost dead center.

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Views looking up and down Seminole Canyon from the same overlook.

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The Rio Grand River.

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There is lots of other history here, also.

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An oven used to bake bread for the construction crews that built the roadbed, and laid the rails.  I understand that there are remains of others scattered around the park.

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Quite an interesting park. Still moving West……jc

8 comments:

  1. Ah, remember my first stay there - was my very first trip with Eggie. Boy, was I still in that learning curve. I left my windows open one night, a storm came up with 60mph winds and horizontal rain! Trailer didn't rock, but guess what came in the windows and who had a soaked bed? Is a very interesting historical area.

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  2. It's fascinating, Jerry. I love to see things like that that give a feel for the everyday lives of ancient civilizations, I bet the drawers of the petroglyphs would be astounded to know that people are still appreciating their work after all this time.

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  3. Most of those artist should not have quit their day jobs but the one who drew the cat--that's cool!!

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  4. No electricity is always a problem, that the area you our in is wonderful. Thanks for sharing:)

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  5. Neat area..love the pictographs! Hope everything works out for lajitas.
    Stay safe...there may be ice.....

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  6. Looks like a great place to relax and wander for a few days. River looking pretty good, so much drought out west it's nice to see some water out there.

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  7. Have been there several times. My first was by boat up the river to see the pictographs seen from there. Amazing place.

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Thanks for looking, and comments are welcome.