Big Bend National Park

I love this photo because of the gorgeous cat eyes on this mountain lion. This is at the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Kendalia, which we stopped at on the way back from Big Bend but I'm putting the cougar photos first because that's what my article that brought me to Big Bend (and WRR) is about. The cat is in a very large enclosure not a cage but she was sitting near the edge of it, observing.

Two mountain lions. The enclosures have several cats in together and we got to hear them interacting which was very cool. They mew and scratch and interact. It's really pretty cool. In the wild they are solitary but in captivity they behave very differently.

This was a shot when we first arrived at Big Bend, in the morning's golden hour. Sotol growing and glowing in the golden morning light.

I love this photo. This was actually on the hike down from Emory Peak, which we did on our second day in Big Bend.

A mountain lion track on the trail. We saw several on the way back down. We took one trail up and another down the mountain. We also saw scat on the trail but I'll spare you the (dis)pleasure of a photo of mountain lion poo.

I love this photo also - it was a huge lightning and rainstorm off in the distance.

This is a macro shot of the rock at the trail at Ernst Tinaja.

A shot of cactus and the rock hills at Burro Mesa trail, which we did on the last day.

The top of the mountain! The view from Emory Peak, the tallest peak in the Chisos Mountains. You had to scramble a bit to get up top and you can see the antenna to the left so we had cell phone coverage - woohoo! Just kidding... ;) Though I must admit, I did check my email on my blackberry up there. Is that sad or what?

Tomorrow I'm flying to the ASJA East Meets West Conference at UC Berkeley so that should be cool and I'll get to see my friend Zofi and my niece Kira! And meet up with a couple writer friends. Should be loads of fun, as always!