DAY THIRTEEN South | "Bend It Like Hightshoe"

We began our day with Michael and Julie telling us that we are going to do a series of twelve sketches as we drive through Big Bend National Park. We then drove to the visitor’s center where Michael and Julie further explained our assignment. As we divided two pages of our sketchbooks into twelve boxes, an unexpected visitor stopped by. Mary Baumgartner, a former Landscape Architecture student who graduated in 2009 walked up and greeted our group. After chatting with Mary for a while we hopped into our vans and began our project. We drove to twelve different locations and did ten minute sketches at each area. After finishing this project we returned to the campsite for lunch. 

"Views from the Road"

After everybody had eaten we headed up to a shelter near our camp for a plants quiz from Gary. After all of us aced the quiz, we split up into two groups for the afternoon activities. One group went with Gary and harlan and went on a nature walk to identify plants in the park. The other group went with Michael on a hike and learned about the difference between necessary paths and designed paths. Once each group had heard from their lecturer, we returned to the campsite and the groups switched professors. 

Plant Walk Drawings

After the second lectures we all returned to the campsite to relax. Once dinner rolled around we were presented with yet another surprise. Our neighboring campers came to our campsite and gave the group a bunch of food! After thanking these campers for their generous donations, we scarfed down the food we relaxed for the rest of the night, knowing that our next day is going to be a free day of canoeing in the Rio Grande.

- Eric & Xuerong