In Big Bend National Park there is a large boulder balanced on some other boulders; this feature is called Balanced Rock. Balanced Rock sits at the end of the one-mile long Grapevine Hills trail and is a popular hiking destination. I have had photographic aspirations for this feature as it overlooks the desert to the east. And since the sun almost always rises in the east, I think that there is a sunrise shot to be had out there. So, my first evening there I scouted out the rock and thought about how I might shoot it at sunrise.

To get to the Grapevine Hills trailhead, you must leave the main road and travel about one and a half miles down a rough dirt road. There are dry creek beds along the road that would be difficult for a low car to pass but a truck or SUV with reasonable ground clearance should be fine in dry conditions. You also get to see about half a dozen cotton tails hopping around in the desert along the way to the trailhead. From the trailhead there is an easy 1 mile hike through a sandy canyon ending with a moderate climb up the rocks to get to the balanced rock. There were plenty of people there on the Saturday afternoon that I hiked out there.

After looking at the rock, I also decided that just after sunrise the sun would be shining down the canyon back toward the trailhead and a beautiful postcard photo was to be had. In the image below you can see the view looking west back toward the trailhead. The trail is coved by the harsh shadows of the late afternoon sun, but I predicted that the morning sun would light up the canyon. So, I made plans to be back at this spot before dawn on Tuesday morning. Monday morning I went to a favorite spot overlooking the Mule Ears and was mostly disappointed.

Monday I had a big hike that I wrote about previously, and Tuesday morning I woke up a couple of hours before dawn and headed back out to the Grapevine hills. It was about 40 minutes of driving and then another 25 minutes hiking in the dark up the trail. I was hiking alone, in the dark of the predawn hour in some mountain lion’s territory during a time that they are generally active. But, sometimes you have to be a little brave and hope that mountain lion doesn’t expect its prey to be wearing a lamp on its head, and as you may have guessed, I wasn’t killed by a mountain lion so that worked out.

There were high clouds in the eastern sky as I arrived at the balanced rock. This filled me with hope for a color show so I climbed up to the perch I had picked out, set up my tripod, and began to wait. The image below from an app on my phone shows where the sunset was scheduled to be with the balanced rock just to the right from my vantage point. Also, 4 bars out there – pretty amazing.

I sat on my cold boulder watching the sky for 20 minutes. “Come on light. Find a gap in the clouds. You can do it.” But the clouds on the horizon were too thick. I saw only a small hint of color in the clouds far off to the northeast but never anything spectacular. It looked like the clouds were building for a gray morning. The image below was taken just at sunrise from the balance rock. Our glorious home star was just cresting the distant horizon… behind a thick wall of clouds. Not sure this photo would have worked anyway.

I waited around the polite amount of time to see if I could get my canyon photo. But the clouds were thick and provided a soft light over the canyon instead of the warm beams that would have provided color and depth. So, below is my ‘postcard’ photo but with a gray sky at my back instead of a golden early morning sun. I did what I could.

Naturally, at this point in the day a man’s thoughts turn to breakfast. There is a little Mexican place in Terlingua that should provide me with a spicy breakfast so I hiked back down the ‘postcard’ trail toward my truck. But my fun wasn’t quite over yet.

About half way back the truck I heard the sounds of a large animal in the rocks to the left of me. Was some other predator also thinking about breakfast? I scanned the cliffs to my left and soon saw several sheep – Aoudads, actually. They were along the base of a cliff and decided that it was time to begin climbing to the top. I even began to hear the kids bleating as their parents ushered them along I suppose. It is amazing to see how quick and agile they are climbing the cliffs.

The aoudads are not a native species. They are actually indigenous to Africa but were brought here by us. I suppose that the settlers got here a couple of hundred years ago, over-hunted the native desert big horn and extirpated them from Texas, and then said “hey, now we ain’t got nuttin’ to hunt. We should bring over some aoudads from Africa so we can still have something to shoot at for fun.” The aoudads thrived here and are now quite common across west Texas and other parts of the southwest as we struggle to reintroduce the native big horn sheep back into their historic range.

The aoudads were fun to shoot at, with a camera anyway. They are amazing to watch as in about a minute they scale a cliff that would take me at least half an hour to pick my way up. The kids seemed to have no more trouble than the adults.

With the aoudads safely up the cliff, I continued on to my truck and then on to breakfast (a chorizo breakfast burrito, if you must know). Thanks for reading.

Texas Parks and Wildlife just released a short video about desert bighorn restoration out there. You can see it at this link: https://youtu.be/latqcPcuZAU?si=S21cZH4-Slx0RfTZ