Part II: Huge, Hot, Horrible, Wonderful,Two Days in West Texas

You're Too Old to Spend the Rest of Your Life on the Couch: Let's Adventure!

Above: the view from our van, blurred, but the beauty wasn’t

Day II of a familiarization trip (FAM), we land at a golf resort and go riding

If the “horrible” part of this were-and certainly are for some- the tarantulas I loved from Part I, this is more of what there is to celebrate even if the heat was something else again. And since it’s Texas, natch it’s all BIG.

Lovers of the West/Southwest, most particularly the Southwest, likely share my love of the sunsets. I’ve been all over the world, and every location brags about its sunsets, but honestly.

Arizona has some of the most spectacular, especially if you’re on a horse and surrounded by saguaro cactus. Nothing like it. New Mexico is a close second, but really, just about anywhere in the Southwest rocks.

As our small group of outdoor writers (Outdoor Writers Association of America) made our slow way from the storied Big Bend National Park to the new golf resort of Jacitas, we got treated to a beaut. It’s blurry, but then we were moving.

I was also blurry, having awakened about 3:30 am and by this time of day pretty much done for. Still, what a sight.

We rolled into Lajitas Golf Resort late enough so that it was all I could manage to get to my room, and this by golf cart as my feet were pretty angry. I’m still recovering from foot surgery and a hike can hurt. I took advantage of the heavy foot of one of the attendants to get me over to one of the huge cottages surrounding a small body of water.

The next day we dressed for a ride with Jacitas’ stables. Had I given this more thought I’m not sure I’d have signed up for four hours in the highest heat of the day, with a riding helmet (mine is black).

Of course I added additional challenges to what was already challenging, without realizing the impact. Silly me.

Given that we were told we’d be riding in cactus country, I added a pair of kangaroo skin chaps. Super thin, but still another layer of leather on top of riding breeches. I set myself up to bake like a pig in a blanket, all in the name of safety.

The stables set us up with head gear and instructions, then got a read on our experience before assigning us our horses. I’m an advanced intermediate, which was largely meaningless on a ride like this. Nobody goes faster than a slow walk. Not only is it just too hot, the terrain doesn’t allow for it for the safety of both horse and rider.

After we signed our lives away we headed out behind the horse trailer to start our ride.

This four-hour ride is terrific for beginners. The horses and mules are calm, quiet, sure-footed and about as “bomb-proof” as a riding animal can get. That said, I hesitate to recommend this at midday and in certain seasons due to the intensity of the heat.

If you’re past sixty, please be heat-acclimated or consider booking during off-peak hours. Some older folks -if not most- are less able to handle temperature extremes and such a trip can go from fun to truly miserable in a hurry.

Most in my group were much younger than I was, and every one of us was beaten down by the sun on our two hours back. We emptied bottle after bottle of water onto our scarves and down our shirts, water that was nearly hot enough to make tea. When it evaporated it felt wonderful.

The ride itself, punctuated by a lunch in the shade of a building in the old mining town, was terrific. The constantly-shifting scenery of reds to whites to corals to browns, the cactus and even the tiny spring-fed creek were a Southwest canvas in motion. The buttes and distant hills undulated in the shimmering heat and formed a landscape of lost stories and stories still to be told.

The forest of ocotillo was bright green and blooming, and a visual treat, along with desert lavender, bursts of bright blooms in the most unlikely of environments, which is precisely the joy of the desert.

shade, blessed shade

There was almost no shade on the journey but for two brief moments when a rock wall offered respite.

Miner cabin remains were scattered everywhere, along with trash dumps so old they are now considered artifacts

Along the way we saw the remains of old cabins, hardly imaginable in such an arid place. That said there is plenty of rain sporadically, enough so that you could see the wash of considerable amounts of water over the sand and rocks.

Early miners were here to find veins of cinnabar, long used for pigment and also to refine for mercury.

Janelle, our guide, pointed to the great number of tiny tadpoles in a thin, fast-moving, algae-lined stream that our horses and mules sucked up gratefully. I assumed the tadpoles would dry up and die, but that’s why you have guides.

Inches away were tiny frogs, testament to how swiftly they mature and grow, hopping in the hot sand to wherever their new destination might be. Nature knows better than we do.

Our day ended close to four pm, with most of us silent on the way home as we focused on the distant promise of the air-conditioned van and the stock of ice-cold water. I took the time to thank Foxy by scrubbing her head and ears, and she pressed her huge head into my chest:

If you choose to book this tour, please kindly keep the above in mind. The ride is absolutely worth it, but I want you to enjoy it thoroughly and not be eager for it to be over with.

With the increasing heat, plan for it. Plan to be safe, be able to cool off, and wear all the appropriate protection. from arm coverings to hats to serious SPF, and more bottles of water than you think you’ll ever need.

You will need them.

And for heaven’s sake, avoid wearing leathers. I’ll take a cactus needle over the heat any day. My fault. Live and learn.

Keep on playing in Texas.

Photo by Loik Marras on Unsplash

Thanks for riding along on this trip, and thanks for your comments as always. If this article was fun please consider

No matter where you are, the heat advice goes, and as we age, we need to be ever more mindful of it. Kindly know your limitations to play another day.