New Year, New You right?

In true spirit of New Year adventure my bestie and I took off on a long weekend to see Big Bend. The national park was on the top of my list of sites to visit in 2016, as part of my trip every month plan. 

So we took off in my Prius. Following the trails on the map, and spontaneously detouring onto the unpaved roads marked only by small wooden signs.

So we see that there are hot springs at the far end of the park. We map out a plan for which roads to take straight through the park; so we can see the sights and get to the hot springs. What we didn’t do was read the map legend, nor the newspaper that they gave us with tips about the trails and the wildlife (including bears and coyotes).

We were ready to see the sights! We saw various mountains. We made it about 2 hours (plus photo ops) into the trail that would t-bone into another trail that leads to the hot springs! Also, we realized the road was pretty rocky.

And then we hit an area where the ground is too narrow to drive around a large grove in the ground. I attempt to straddle the groove with my car- but it’s too wide and the Prius falls into the split! I try to pull us out and the car wiggles its way to be even MORE STUCK in the mud and lodge atop a rock bed.

So in true Ellen adventure stories- we look at the map and decide to start the 16 mile walk to a visitors center in the far corner of the park. 

A little more than 5 miles later. We have seen one car, that drove away from us. We are cold, damp but hopeful. 

And then Kristin realizes she has phone service!! So we call the Ranger Station for rescue. We plan a place to meet them, and begin to walk to a road marker. In the mean time, we can see in the distance a large pick up truck getting closer and closer, finally pulling up to meet us. It’s not the rangers.

The two people, named Matt and Carrie, in the truck are curious as to how we got to the spot we were in. I explained the situation, and they agree to help pull me out of the hole. I hop in their truck and we are on the way. One frustrating hour later, Matt has figured out how to connect the tow hook onto my car and Carrie has taken about 100 pictures of the process. Simultaneously, Kristin and the park rangers show up. We are saved!!