Starting at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 19, two staff members and eight youth mentors met up at South Park Middle School to load up and start the long trip to Big Bend National Park for Thanksgiving break. The ride there was, luckily, pretty uneventful and consisted mainly of listening to mix CD’s, sleeping and a good amount of meme sharing as well. We didn’t arrive at the campground until 7:30 that evening. Half of the group set up camp and the other half of the group started making dinner so we could get everyone fed and in bed after a long day on the road.
In the morning, which was a chilly one, we all crowded around the stove waiting for the water to boil so we could enjoy a lovely cup of hot coco. Once everyone had a cup we started talking about what we would like to accomplish on this trip, hikes we’d like to take, sites we’d like to see, and gift shops to visit. Since there are A LOT of options for things to do in Big Bend we allowed the group to vote for two individuals who would help consolidate and decide what activities the group would do that first day. We call them the ‘Leader’ and ‘Navigator’ and their jobs are to keep the group on track with the adventures they have chosen for the group.
At the end of Balance Rock Trail
On the first day the Leader and Navigator chose to check out the gift shop first, so that everyone could watch a 30 minute video about the park. The video educated us on the native plant and wildlife in the area and how the park was formed. It was full of interesting facts about the park and a perfect starter activity for us first time visitors (including myself, there were five of us who had never had the chance to attend the National Park before) and gave us a better understanding and appreciation for what we were about to experience in Big Bend. After the video, we looking around the shop before heading out to go on our first hike, the Grapevine Hills Trail (Balance Rock Trail). As you may suspect, the “Balance Rock Trail” takes you to a cool rock formation where there is a rock laying between two other rocks and has created an opening underneath which is perfect for standing under and taking some great pictures (as you can see). We ate lunch at the Rock, explored and rock-climbed around the trails for quite some time. After a few hours at the Rock, the Leader and Navigator rounded up the crew and headed back down and back to camp.
“Surfing”
Youth Odyssey is currently in the process of revamping our mentor program to focus on pushing our mentors further with leadership, communication, taking initiative, conflict resolution and problem solving. So when we got back to camp we had the mentors fill out some personality paperwork to determine what personality type they identify with the most. We used this information to go over how each personality type handles stress, what motivates them, how to comfort them and encourage them. Then we followed it up with some examples we have encountered working with kids and how, being able to identify the different personality traits based on behavior, can help guide them in helping and motivating the kids we work with on a regular basis. Then we broke up the mentors into two groups and gave them a list of items they have recovered from a “plane crash activity” in the desert and they, as a group, had to decide on the importance of each item and rank them from most important to least important. When they were done they were able to explain how they came to their conclusions and how they worked as a group to get through disagreements.
If you look closely you can see one of our mentors standing on the rock in the middle.
The activities proved to be successful and the mentors all said how it was fun and interesting; that they had learned how to work with different personalities and how people interpret information differently. Afterward, it was dinner time but the group wanted to discuss some longer, involved day hikes for the next day. So we broke into groups, one to prepare dinner and the other to plan out the next days activities. After dinner was prepared the plan for the next day was revealed and a new Leader and Navigator were chosen. We were to get up at 5:00 a.m. the next morning, eat oatmeal and be on the road to hike Emory Peak at 6:00 a.m. The drive was about an hour long so we would arrive at the trailhead around 7:00a.m. Everyone was on board with the plan, so we packed everything we’d need for the next day in the van before we all headed to bed.
Pausing for a break along the Emory Peak Trail.
The next morning went off without a hitch and we started the hike around 7:30 a.m. The reason for the early wakeup call was because it was a 9 mile hike and was said to take about 8 hours to hike up and back. Emory Peak is the highest peak in Big Bend at a little over 7,800 feet and the trail had been attempted by Youth Odyssey groups before but had never been completed due to running out of time, youth getting tired, and not feeling well due to elevation. The hike was not without it’s issues this time around either, but with that being said, we were the first group to make it to the top of Emory Peak and see the amazing views from the top of the Big Bend. There were two mentors who chose not to go all the way up because of being tired and a fear of heights so we had some of the group stay with them and the other part of the group get to the top then, when that group came back, the other group went to summit the peak. We began our 5.5 mile ascent at 3:30 p.m. and it was a race against the sun to get to the bottom before we ended up hiking in the dark. We got back to the van right as the sun was going down over the mountain tops and then began the restful drive back to camp.
Hot spring on the left and river on the right.
Dinner was a quick one that night and most of us were pretty wiped but that didn’t stop us from playing some card games and discussing different accomplishments that we were proud of (most of them included summiting Emory Peak in their lists). It was a relaxing night and we all slept great. In the morning we let the mentors sleep in until 8:00 a.m. though most were already awake in their tents due to other (non YO) campers being up and causing some commotion. During hot coco time the group chose yet another Leader and Navigator to plan out our last day in the park. They chose a pretty relaxing day of visiting the gift shop to buy things and heading to the hot springs for some soaking of the feet. Personally, the hot springs were too hot for me to get in and the river was too cold for me to get in so I sat on the edge and put my feet in. The mentors took a more immersive approach to the springs and river. They would get in the hot springs and then jump into the cold river and then warm back up in the hot springs and went on doing that for the next two hours until we left to head back to camp again and start packing up.
After the Emory Peak hike
Wanting to get back into Corpus at a decent time we knew that we’d need to get on the road at around 6:00 a.m. the next morning which meant that we needed to pack up as much of camp as possible the night before. When we got back to camp we had some free time before getting started on supper and packing up camp where the mentors just hung out and talked and played cards. When it was time to pack up, they worked like a well oiled machine, splitting up tasks and working together to get everything put up that evening. The same went in the morning when we were all up at 5:00 a.m. packing up our personal gear, taking down our tents, folding up tarps and packing up the trailer. Our goal was to be leaving the campsite at 6:00 a.m. and we were heading out at 6:09 a.m. Not bad at all.
Due to the vastness of Big Bend National Park, it took us an hour and a half until we got to the park exit, where we took a picture next to the park sign. Again, the ride back was pretty uneventful and definitely consisted of more sleeping than the ride there (but not as much as you’d expect after some big days of adventuring). We arrived back in Corpus around 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 23, and said farewell to our Big Bend Crew so they could go spend Thanksgiving with their family and friends.
It was a fun and successful trip and there was so much to do at Big Bend that we barely scratched the surface. That means that on our next adventure to Big Bend we have even more trails and sites to discover and I can’t wait!
