I haven't blogged nearly enough about this and I really regret it. My first experience in the Big Bend Country was about 15 years ago. My father and I went out there for President's Day (February) because we weren't interested in baking in the summer heat. I immediately fell in love with the dry, rugged, spartan lands of the Big Bend. There was nothing out there except for some of the most magnificent vistas in all the world. Now, I don't say that lightly. I've been in over 35 different nations, across the worlds highest mountains, through its harshest deserts and some of its wildest jungles. And the Big Bend area is in the top ten. Maybe cause its home. But then again, maybe not.

More after the jump.

A year or two after my father and I visited for the first time, I was out there in December climbing to the top of Emory Peak. It's one of the most magnificent views in all the world, clear skies for two hundred miles and 360 degrees of desert mountains. Pinks, yellows, oranges, greens , tans and cactus. Lots and lots of cactus.

I climbed down and had dinner at the small national park restaurant there in the Basin, as its called. I struck up a conversation with an older gentleman and his wife who were from Tasmania.

"We came all this way just to see the sunset here again. This is our favorite national park in America. It'll probably be our last time here. We're not getting younger you know?"

"Yes sir," I replied. It warmed my hear that my government had seen fit to preserve this magnificent place from the rapacious talons of free enterprise, that it had seen fit to pass this place on to my children, that they may find the peace and serenity I'd found there.

And it breaks my heart to tell you, much of it is now for sale.