I wake before sunrise to find that the water bottle in the tent is empty. Jon drank the remaining water in the night. We have only 10oz left and so we make the decision to head straight for the visitor center to refill. On the way, we pass the campsite we reserved for the third night. It was another large and beautiful spot with great views. By daylight, we are running into individuals or groups every 5 minutes and we brace ourselves for more noise and congestion. We bemoaned an unexpected trail reroute that added a distance but finally arrived at the trailhead, parking lot, then water fountain. Water fountains are such magical and wonderful things. Having unending water was truly wondrous. We drank our fill and sat down next to the fountains for breakfast. We drank more water, ate, chatted with passerby and checked the map.
Somehow among this time we decided to set off for new scenery and activity. We repacked our things and set off out of the Chisos Mountains and across the street to Grapevine Hills. We heard of good bouldering in that area so we brought our crash pads with us. We took another quick 2 mile hike out to Balanced Rock, where the landscape was dramatically different from the forested mountains. It was boulder heaven!
We had a hard time finding the boulder routes that we wanted – the climbing app Mountain Project was useful but the area was generally disorienting. It was like finding a needle in a haystack!
Eventually, we found the area we were looking for and began climbing around. Another couple came for trad climbing and we cheered them on as they played in the tall crack systems. Moving in the weird ways that climbing gets you into felt great after just walking for two days so we climbed until it got dark.
We made it back to the campsite and fell into a hard sleep, having eaten only peanut butter and apple. We were so tired, we just fell off into a deep sleep.
Stark West Travels 