This Thanksgiving I went to Big Bend National Park in West Texas with my family, friends, and some of my brother’s friends. We left on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 and came back on Saturday, November 28, 2009. With the new speed limit of 80 mph on I-10 (which is awesome and should be 90), the trip only took 7 hours.

Thursday, our first full day, we hiked The Lost Mine trail (4.8 miles round trip). The legend is that the Spanish found a large silver mine and enslaved the local native Americans. The native Americans eventually rebelled and buried the mine so there wouldn’t be a reason to exploit them again. Unfortunately we didn’t rediscover the mine (wink wink).

Friday we hiked the South Rim Trail and Emory Peak (14 miles round trip). Emory Peak is the second highest peak in Texas at 2,375.92 m (Guadalupe Peak is highest at 2,656.94 m). It was foggy most of the day but cleared up by the time we got to the top of Emory Peak. What a lung buster as well as a spectacular 360 degree view!

Saturday it warmed up and since we were all sore from hiking, we decided to go to the Hot Springs next to the Rio Grande River. It was actually a little too hot for the springs so we just dipped our feet in the river. Some of the other visitors swam over to Mexico.

After the Hot Springs we headed back home. I thank Jonathan and Jessica for driving on the way back.

Pictures are posted here.