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There is no better way to find out the meaning of a pile of rocks than to hire a good guide. The biggest bargain of all are the free interpretive activities staged by rangers throughout the park, from thirty-minute presentations on flora and fauna to the irregularly scheduled fifty-mile, five-hour Drive Through Time motor caravan. Weekly activity schedules are posted around the park and at the Panther Junction visitors' center. The Big Bend Natural History Association hosts half-day, full-day, and multiday group seminars in and out of the park, led by experts like photographer Jim Bones and botanist Barton Warnock. Write Big Bend Natural History Assocation, P.O. Box 68, Big Bend National Park, Texas 79834, or call 477-2236 for a schedule and prices. Jim Hines's Big Bend Birding Expeditions (371-2356) conducts full-day and overnight tours by van and boat in and around the park, starting at $110 per person. | |
 Otherwise, if you want an informed companion to accompany you, hire someone outside the park. Big Bend River Tours in Lajitas and Outback Expeditions in Study Butte run half-day and full-day four-wheel-drive backcountry tours, starting at $50 (four-person minimum).
I found Bill Bourbon, a geologist, birder, and former ranger who leads group seminars for the Big Bend Natural History Association and occasionally takes individuals and small groups on excursions by appointment only for $150 a day. His vast knowledge and interpretive skills turned what might have been an uneventful six-hour backcountry drive along the Old Ore Road into a fascinating field trip. Among other things, Bourbon explained why some prickly pear cacti are purple (a defensive measure to save chlorophyll during dry periods); pointed out the difference between a lechuguilla and a hechtia, or false agave. With Bourbon's help, I learned to identify fresh mountain lion droppings and recognize invader plants like tamarisk (also known as salt cedar), which chokes out other vegetation around springs. He pointed out that Russian thistle, commonly known as tumbleweed, and the ubiquitous creosote bush did not become dominant desert plants until the grasslands were overgrazed by ranchers in the years before the park was established. Before the day was done, I knew my igneous intrusions from my continental terrestrial deposits. |
