We started our morning waking up before the sunrise and grabbing a quick bite of breakfast at the Bad Rabbit Cafe located at the Terlingua Ranch where we stayed. Walking back to our cabin, dawn lit up the area around us and we were amazed at the beauty of our surroundings.

As we drove on the 17-mile road back to Hwy 118, we noticed a row of mailboxes lined up for all the residents on the street. It’s actually a pretty efficient way to deliver mail and newspapers. Since we had arrived after dark the previous evening, we couldn’t see many of our surroundings.

From the Big Bend NP webpage, we had downloaded a free app called Just Ahead. We turned it on and the voice told us about various landmarks as we drove to Terlingua, Study Butte and into the park.

Once inside the park, we still had more than 20 miles before the Lost Mine Trail. The app detailed several rock formations including hiker rock and more of the history of the park.

Soon the trail-head and parking area came upon us. I’m glad we had the app because we may have driven right past it. There were only 10-12 parking spaces and we got one of the last ones. We later found out there is another smaller parking area around the next couple of curves. Seeing the cars made us appreciate getting up at the crack of dawn for the hike.

We started up the trail which was mainly in the shade at the beginning. Soon we wound back and forth up the side of the mountain climbing about 1,000 feet. By this time, we were in the full sun and began to shed some of our layers. All my research said that this was the “must-do” trail if you only had a day or two in the park. By the time we got to the top, we could see why.

The sky was clear, the air was crisp and the mountains were breathtaking. We ran into lots of other hikers that we hadn’t seen along the trail. Everyone just stared and admired the beauty of the Chisos Mountains.

After the 5-mile, moderate hike, we drove to the Chisos Basin Village.