December 31, I left the last city "Marathon" toward national park and went west in the vast expanse of desert. There were not motels and hotels after this, therefore, we filled up gasoline, food and water here. As the name "Big Bend" implies, Rio Grande river draw a big arc toward the south and this park seems to protrude to Mexico. It is just treasure-house of cacti.

As soon as I entered the gate, we went east on the dirt road. I saw E. dasyacanthus, Neolloydia conoidea and E.horizonthalonius on the limestone slope. I could also find Glandulicactus wrightii there. Agave lechuguilla wound around our legs. M.lasiacantha we saw there was so large and over 5cm in diameter. I wore T-shirts, but it was very hot and we were soaked with sweat. Although we walked around for 2 hours, we could not find E.mariposensis contrary to our expectation.

I continued to go south and arrived at the Rio Grande Village in the evening. Boquillas Canyon, Mexico was just over there. We climbed a cliff and found a group of E.warnockii. This is not almost cultivated in Japan and we may take it for Thelocactus and Coryphantha. As early as December, we saw some stems with flowers there.

I stayed overnight in the camp area there. I slept on the ground in the open air. The sky was covered with many brilliant stars. What a luxurious hotel it was! The temperature started to fall rapidly and it was around 0C. I trembled with the cold and welcomed the New Year.I sometimes heard coyotes singing.

Jan 1,There were limestone hills around the Rio Grande Village. I often see a lot of cacti in such places. The first cactus I found in the morning in the New Year was F. hamatacanthus. The hooked red spines were shining in the morning sun and striking. The "Red" color is one of auspicious colors in Japan. We laughed F. was suitable for that day.

i continued to climb the hill that I saw F. hamatacanthus and found two mimetic plants there. One was A. fissuratus and it was found growing flat against rocky limestone, as the name "Living Rock" implied. It was considerably easy to find them. They were not fresh and green like cultivated, and had a charm of refind simplicity.

The other was E. micromeris var. bokei and 3cm in diameter. Small button of the same color as limestone seemed to be stuck on the ground. It was strange view, since marvelous plants did not look creatures were growing at same intervals. They were also flat and not round like cultivated. I did not see them forming clumps there. M.lasiacantha looked like E.micromeris var. bokei was also dwelling in the same place. This was 2cm or under in diameter. I were soaked with sweat all too soon. I did not believe we had been numbed with the cold last night.

This park is too expensive to look round in a couple of days. It seems to be a place better than Rio Grande Village in the southern area, but we can not have access there by car. We felt it very hard to part and left there in the afternoon. I left there from the west side. The following pictures are two interesting plants I saw on our way back.

Like I told on top page, I like to visit habitats and sometimes take photograph. I would like to introduce you our favorite habitats on this page. We will take you to 'Big Bend National park-Texas' at this time. If you are interested in the habitats and have ever been there, please let me know. Let's talk about the habitats