Sunday, March 08, 2009

What a magical tour I've had already, and yesterday I had another peak experience. I spent the first part of the day hiking trails in Big Bend Park, where I saw a fat coiled diamondback, a large brown centipede, bighorn sheep, and a spiky lizard that looked like a deflated blowfish.

As evening approached, I walked to the Big Bend Hot Springs, observing ancient pictographs and petroglyphs along the way. Yellow rock nettles, ocotillo, and prickly pear flowers pleased my eyes and nose; pyrrhuloxia, cactus wrens, and bullfrogs thrilled my ears; the balmy desert wind soothed my burnt skin. Soaking in the 105 F. water, I imagined myself in an Egyptian oasis three thousand years ago. America's landscape is truly multi-textured.

The Springs spill directly into the Rio Grande. I lay on a flat rock underneath the flow, with one leg dangling into the river, and let the agua caliente cascade over me. (Had 'em to myself, contrary to image.) I must've stayed there three hours, watching the arc of the three-quarter moon. Towards midnight, I swam naked to Mexico's shimmery shore, just to say I did--unless it's illegal to do that, in which case I didn't.

1 comment:

Flying Mermaid said...

Wow wow WOW! What a glorious day! So the snakes are already awake down there? Or don't they even sleep away the winter the way they do here? Sounds like it's pretty well Spring all the way around there.

Been raining here all night, giving off that fabulous aroma of dampened creosote bush, but we're not up to Spring yet, for a while.

And hot springs! YUM! Been a minute since I've been in any and they sound just about right. And you swam to Mexico! hehehehe!