Terlingua Sunset – Spiral Notebook – Ruled Line

Nestled outside the western border of Big Bend National Park rests the old mining town of Terlingua.  This real-life ghost town, once long-abandoned, has turned into a thriving tourist town, with locals and tourists alike spending hours on the front porch of the Terlingua Trading Company and the Starlight Theater (the old mining company trading post and the renovated historic theater next door).  Down the hill from here is the Terlingua Cemetery, with decades-old graves and newer graves, and within a mile or so are several sites where you can literally spend a night under the stars… In a tipi, a plastic dome house, or just out in the desert next to a bonfire.

This photo was taken a little while before sunset, facing east toward the Chisos Mountains of Big Bend, from Buzzard’s Roost, a tipi rental company.  As always, the amazing evening light made the retreating clouds and distant ridges almost glow with anticipation of the oncoming night.