Cattail Falls
This hike isn’t on the Big Bend National Park map, partly to protect the fragile environment. It starts uneventfully on a gravel road that is closed to vehicles, and then after a mile or so the trail branches up to the right. Stairs climb up before leveling out and then descending into the canyon. The bottom of the falls is all rock and an inviting dense, cool canyon of oak trees and ferns leads to the falls. The rocks of the cliff face behind the falls are streaked with black and white, making it visually striking. It was such a treat to relax and listen to the sound of water, even if it wasn’t a high flow waterfall this time of year. This hike was short, at only 5.7 miles as an out and back so we turned right down at the bottom of the trail and headed on up to The Window.
The Window
Traditionally people hike The Window from the Chisos Basin but that side is very popular and we wanted a more remote experience. We hiked a little further up the gravel road we had come up for Cattail Falls and then turned left onto the Oak Springs Trail. This is where all the climbing started. We ascended a series of steep switchbacks with amazing views down on the valley below. The tread was quite rocky and I’m happy I had my hiking poles. Once we reached the top, we descended down into The Window. The Window is a 220’ waterfall in rainy season, though it was a trickle this time of year. The section of trail once we turned off Oak Springs Trail is a fun series of rock steps running along tinajas (pools). There was water in all of the pools and we geeked out on how awesome the area was. As we assumed, there were no other people on the trail until we got to the intersection of Oak Spring and The Window Trail.
The whole day was 9.7 miles with 1962’ of climbing. Most of the climbing was in the middle part as we climbed up to the falls. It was a long downhill back to the truck and we were happy to relax back at camp. We’ve been invited to a wedding here in Terlingua! Should be fun!
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