oneillj

Anybody familiar with Big Bend National Park? What are the best trails to scout for landscape and Night sky photography?

Drip Dry McFleye

Just got back from 8 days in Big Bend. Did a lot of hiking. An awful lot of it is desert but the cacti were in bloom. The trails that stand out were The Santa Elena Canyon (not the overlook), The Lost Mine Trail, The Window Trail, Burro Mesa Pouroff. We hiked others but these are the ones I liked most. The Old Maverick Road is pretty rough. If you're driving a regular car don't even think about that road. Chisos Basin is the best place IMHO to be based out of. Higher elevation makes it noticeably cooler. There's a Really nice restaurant, running water, flush toilets, camp store, rooms to rent BUT campground and rooms filled up every night we were there. Many of the above amenities are NOT available in the other campsites. If you are traveling in an RV, Chisos is only open for 20ft. max. You can't make the curves with anything longer. I did pretty well with a 24-120 f4 on a crop sensor. I'm sure some will say you need wider but I found it was pretty easy to get far enough away. A couple of sunsets were really good but the evening light on the mountains at Chisos is not to be ignored. We are both 70 and pretty active but declined the Emory Peak Trail because of the 8,ooo+ feet altitude. Chisos is also good for the night sky because it's well away from any city lights and they ask that people refrain from use of artificial lights after 10pm. We sat at our picnic table for a while each night just to see the incredible star show.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

oneillj

Thanks. I'll do some research.