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Article: Saddling and paddling the Big Bend
- Article from:
- Southern Living
- Article date:
- February 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Southern Progress Corporation Feb 1996. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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"You can see why adjectives lose their power out here," says guide Bess Anne Gott.
She's right. Our group looks over a tiny corner of the Big Bend Ranch State Park in way-west Texas, and I've never felt so humbled. Clinging to a horse that just braved a cliff face to climb to this 3,000-foot mesa, I gape at the earth that falls away in every direction, apparently unscathed by human touch for a 100-mile radius.
Light so golden it puddles in our hands paints the mountains below in cotton-candy pinks, smoky blues, and mahoganies. The formations rise in crumbling turrets and swell in strictly edged waves, covered in enough creosote and cacti to make them appear coated with lichen.
We're nearly ...