Terlingua, TX

After tenting for three nights in Big Bend, it was quite a treat to stay in these casitas. The casitas had two double beds, a kitchen and a bathroom with a shower. We weren't tenting anymore.

During our jeep tour, Tim had told us about La Kiva. It is a bar built mostly underground near the Terlingua creek. It has venues for live entertainment. After a day in the desert, we were most interested in the happy hour special of $1.00 draft beers.

For dinner we went to the Starlight, another of Tim's recommendations. Musicians gather on the porch of the Starlight for impromptu performances. Others sit to watch the colors change on the Chisos Mountains at sunset.

From the casitas, we took a jeep tour into the Christmas Mountains. Here we are with our guide, Tim.

The tour took us to an abandoned cinnabar mine. Cinnabar, the ore from which mercury is extracted, was discovered near Terlingua in the late 1800's. During the heyday of mining, the town had some 2000 residents. The town became a ghost town when the mining boom ended, Today, it is mostly a tourist destination for people visiting Big Bend NP.