Details
Spend the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend in magnificent Big Bend National Park, where you will experience the deep canyons of the Rio Grande river, the vast openness of the Chihuahuan desert, and the awe-inspiring views from the Chisos Mountains. Desert hikes will include remote canyons, isolated springs, and unique geological formations. In the mountains, we will find sharp contrasts as the plant and animal life changes rapidly from the agave and lechugilla of the desert to the grasslands and pinon pine, alligator juniper and live oak at the higher elevations. Animals of the Big Bend include coyotes, javelina, mule deer, hawks, golden eagles, and, very rarely, mountain lions and black bears. Base Camp: Rio Grande Village, with restrooms and showers (until 8:00 pm): its also a short distance from the Hot Springs. A smaller, second camp will be set up in the Chisos Basin, surrounded by the magnificent Chisos mountains. No showers are available in Chisos Basin, but the group will sometimes visit the showers in the Village campground. Average Thanksgiving temperatures are about 30 to 70 degrees, but we have had temperatures as low as 16 and as high as 90 on some trips.
Transportation: 15-passenger vans, limited to 10 passengers for comfort. The vans will leave Wednesday morning and arrive in Big Bend by the evening. Vans will return to Austin on Sunday by about 6 pm.
Meals: We're know for serving pretty fabulous meals on our campouts, and we'll have the usual turkey, gravy, ham, side dishes, vegetables, vino, and deserts at our big Thanksgiving feast..you know, just like your mother makes. We're also very vegetarian friendly, so there will be vegetarian options at every meal, some dinners might be all vegetarian, too. We can also serve gluten-free meals when requested.
Cost: $300 for Sierra Club members and $325 for non-members in the Village. We have to ask for $310 and $335 for the Chisos campground, due to increased costs.The fee includes transportation, all meals in camp (including the big Thanksgiving feast), entrance and camping fees. Note: It only costs $25 to become a new Sierra Club member. Please mail checks, made out to Austin Sierra Club, to John Yarber,[masked]/2 Oak Blvd, Austin, Texas 78735
Trip Limits: We can have up to 40 people in the Village campground and about 12 in the Chisos camp. I'm increasing the Meetup limit to 60 because not everybody who signs up on this site will go and 12 campers will be in Chisos. This trip is filling up amazingly fast!! Please send in your registration as soon as you can; I don't deposit checks until right before the trip, but I really need to be sure that you are going. We always allocate space on a first come, first served, basis.
Trip newsletter: You will find the Big Bend trip newsletter, with complete hike descriptions and an equipment checklist, at the top of this page. Just click on "More", "Files" and download "Big Bend 2012 Newsletter"
Pre-trip Meeting:Tuesday, November 13th, at 6:30 pm in the meeting room of the North Village Branch of the Austin Public Library. The address is 2505 Steck and it is located one block west of Burnet Road.
PLEASE NOTE: Advance registration is required for this trip. Please visit the trip website at http://www.texas.sierraclub.org/austin/2012Bigbend.html for more information about the trip. The Sierra Club website should answer about all of your questions, but feel free to ask the leaders any questions that you may have.
Please note that simply clicking on "Yes" on this site does not register you for the trip, so you'll need to go to the club's site for more information on how to register.
