This morning M managed to photograph the sunrise:

I joined him outside:

B and I did some homeschool outside, and we found this stick bug on my chair:

In its natural habitat, it’s much harder to see:

Trish taught B how a voltage divider works.  Obviously, I married well:

Once I finished teaching my subjects, I rode my bike towards the Chisos Mountains, a ride which would have a 2700 foot elevation gain over 12 miles.  The section from our campsite to Panther Junction was a 3% to 5% grade:

I then turned west at Panther Junction, fighting a brutal headwind until I turned south onto the Chisos Basin road.  Here the grade kicked up quite a bit:

In the higher elevations, different plants grow:

At this point, I could see the saddle through which I would cross into the Chisos Basin:

After crossing the summit at 5700 feet, I descended a few hundred feet to Chisos Basin:

Trish and the kids met me here:

While I changed back into normal clothes, M hunted the elusive roadrunner:

We set out to hike the Window Trail:

M continues to experiment:

Here the canyon narrows, and steps have been built into the canyon wall:

We noticed a tarantula fall into this water hole.  M used a stick to push it to safety:

The spider safely on shore:

Photographing rock textures:

At last we arrived at the Window:

The rock here has been worn slick by rain storms and that last step is hundreds of feet down, so we were very careful:

The view from the Window:

This insect is nearly two inches long, and they’re everywhere:

We started back with less than an hour of sunlight:

Happy fifth night of Chanukah!

See the trip map for today’s drive.