I used to be middle school social studies teacher and one of the topics I would enjoy sharing with students is how as you increased your elevation, i.e. climbed a mountain, the temperature got cooler. (The sun heats the Earth, heated air radiates from the ground, mountains being further from the ground, the air would be cooler, or so the discussion would go.)
As backpackers who spent a decent amount of time in the mountains of New England, we knew this truth and had experienced it many, many times.
In west Texas, where Big Bend National Park is located, temperatures work the same, of course, it is just the perspective that gets turned around a bit. People here, the best we can tell, look at temperatures from how low, in elevation, you go.
For example, we are staying at Panther Junction which is 3750 feet. We work at the Chisos Basin Visitor Center which is at 5400 feet. The Rio Grande and Rio Grande Village is at 1850 feet – the lowest elevation in the park. (We have not climbed the highest peak yet, Emory Peak, but that is 7832 feet.) Our second day in the park, the warmest it has been so far, Panther Junction got to a high of about 90 degrees. Chisos Basin a high of about 83 degrees. The Rio Grande – 108 degrees.
How this play out here, is that people assume no one wants to go ‘down’ to the river – it is too hot! Similarly, there are three visitor centers at the low elevations – they all close for the season (meaning summer, by the first of May and do not re-open until November!)
We appreciate and understand the perspective – but being out-of towners, we went down to the River today – it was only 98!
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| Hot Springs (left, 105 degrees) and the Rio Grande (behind) |
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