We enjoy our morning routine, so our explorations today, once again, didn’t begin until mid-morning. 

Our first stop was at Sam Nail Ranch.

In 1916, Sam Nail built a two-room adobe house on the banks of Cottonwood Creek.

He soon married, and he and his wife raised a family there. We wandered through their homestead, observing remains of the original house, its adobe walls melting back into the desert. Soon, we were diverted to the sight of several Vultures sitting in a few trees on the homestead.

As we exited, the old, wooden windmill came into view and we imagined it pumping water up to a tank on the top of Burro Mesa for the Nail’s cattle.

Next, we stopped at the Chesos Basin Visitor Center

with plans to hike the Chisos Basin Loop Trail, but low blood sugar prohibited me from hiking the 2.0 mile trail. Instead, we hiked the short Window View Trail which offered a great view of The Window. Even a bird perched in a nearby tree.

The Chesos Mountains provided spectacular landscape photo opportunities. 

From the Chesos Basin Visitor Center, we drove to Dugout Wells for a picnic lunch.

Dugout Wells was once known as the “Cultural Center of the Big Bend.” The railroad reached Marathon in 1882, which drew people to the area with the hopes of making a life in West Texas. In the early 1900s, ranchers and farmers began to move into what is now Big Bend National Park. The Green family and their neighbors, the Averys, began to run livestock in the area around this spring. Community members built a schoolhouse which attracted children from the immediate area. This development made the area the social center for the surrounding families.