The alarm rang early on our second full day of the trip. We'd decided to get an early start and tackle Emory Peak. Emory Peak is the highest point in the park and we wanted to get an early start to avoid climbing in the heat of the day.
Researching the climb we'd heard that it was difficult, though rewarding. We started on the trail before official sunup, embarking as soon as there was enough light to see, to allow as much time as possible. We parked at the Chisos Basin Visitors' Center and took the Basin Trailhead. The morning was surprisingly cool but the hike quickly warmed us up. The trail seems to jump from the basin floor before settling into a nice grade.
From "go" the views were amazing. I'm sure it's mostly due to my love of the Trans-Pecos landscape, but every step revealed a new vista worth stopping and looking at. The trail was heavily wooded with a mix of pine, juniper, and Texas madrone. The madrone was a tree new to us; the bark peeled from the trunk, similar to a crepe myrtle at certain times of the year.
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| Early View on the Emory Peak Trail |
The trail was surprisingly well maintained. To be honest I didn't have an expectation of what it would look like, but it was well packed and quite wide. The trail is listed as over nine miles, round trip, so we kept up a good pace and gained altitude quickly.
In the picture above you can see the small collection of buildings that are the Chisos Basin Visitors' Center and Lodge. We kept an eye on those buildings throughout the climb, as they provided a good frame of reference for how far we'd gone. The landscape was so grand that without some measured marker it was difficult to judge distances.
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| The Visitors' Center is Next to the Pinnacle in the Middle of the Frame |
You get into a certain rhythm when walking on a trial, and Kenny and I certainly did that. We only stopped to rest once on the way up, where we split off the Pinnacles Trail and headed toward the Peak. In all this time we'd only seen two other people on the trail, two gentlemen who were birding about a mile from the trailhead. It seemed our plan of traveling in a shoulder-season was paying off.
The last stretch of trail before the Peak was a scramble over exposed rock. The whole trail had been so well maintained that this was a bit surprising, but we both agreed this was one of the most fun parts of the trip. We initially crawled to one summit, only to realize that it was a false peak. For those that go, the true peak has radio equipment on it. The park has a radio system and one of their antennas is up on Emory.
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| All the Way to the Top |
The views from the top of the Peak were amazing; you could see for tens of miles in each direction. In the picture above we're looking to the south and west. We took our packs off and sat down to enjoy the views and rest for a while. There were cliff swallows flying about and they were absolutely fearless. The wind was really blowing and the swallows would fly with it, going extremely fast. Kenny and I couldn't have been more than ten feet apart and several times we had the birds fly between us.
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| Kenny and I at the Peak |
We spent about an hour at the top before heading down. We could have spent much longer but other hikers started to arrive and we wanted to get out of their way, as there wasn't much room. We'd made the peak in 2 hours and the walk down took 2.5. By the time we reached the bottom we were ready for lunch and grabbed a bite to eat at the Chisos Mountain Lodge.
To be continued...
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