It’s the best time of the year because the Bachelor is back! Which means Monday night watch parties at my place. See you there! Besides watch parties, I have been maximizing my weekends, even in a state as big as Texas! I’ve done some really fun things the past few weeks I am excited to share with you all.

Work is great. I wish I had more photos of me Rangering and giving programs, but you’ll have to take my word for it. I am thriving in the night sky programs; we did a special program when the 7 planets aligned, and we were able to have a telescope set up on each one. I got to see Uranus and Neptune for the first time! And this recent Saturday, I independently gave a full 30-minute night sky program for the first time to about 150 people. I felt like a celebrity the next day because people kept asking if I was ‘Ranger Rachel from the dark program last night’ and they wanted to tell me how much they loved it.

In other work news I got to go out on some cool hikes recently, and a backcountry patrol with some of our volunteers. There is a lot of the park that is inaccessible to my lil Subaru, because we have rough roads that require high clearance and 4WD. Luckily, over one of my weekends the volunteers said they would be happy to take me out and show me some of the roads, and it was a fantastic day!

Ooh it’s a double trouble blog with Ranger Michael this time around. With our adventures recently we got to see each other back-to-back (well 2 weeks apart) with me taking a trip to Johnson City, and then him coming to Big Bend. We didn’t stay long in JC as we decided to spend our weekend in Houston, going to a Phil Wickham concert. On the way, I was blessed because we got to visit the iconic Buccees, and go through their “longest car wash ever” a 5-minute wash out in eastern Texas.

After Houston, we headed to Big Thicket National Preserve and spent the day there, hiking in the piney woods of Texas. It was a funky piecemealed park but was a gorgeous, swampy area.

Our Airbnb that night was the coolest, it was an old cabin that bordered Big Thicket on 10 acres. We had the whole place to ourselves and enjoyed the wonderful soundscapes in the cozy woods!

Since we had a long drive home, I was looking for things to stop at along the way and discovered we would be going right by the Blue Bell original factory! We made a stop, enjoyed looking at the brief museum, and checking out the original dairy truck used to deliver frozen goods, but the best part was they had $1 ice cream scoops!

In-between my Michael time, I got invited to do Estufo Canyon & Banta Shut-In. An off-trail hike with another backcountry volunteer couple who have been at the park for 19 seasons. They knew all about the hidden spots, where to take us and man was it a long day but lots of fun with the diverse group we had.

And before we knew it, we were back together for another weekend! This time Michael came to see me, and I had some grand adventures planned. We went backpacking up in the Chisos Mountains, to the South & East Rims. We got incredible views, had a secluded campground, and Michael took some great night sky photography shots!

We spent our last day exploring more in the park. I took Michael over to Boquillas, Mexico so he could experience a new country and the border town! We had some good food and got great views of the Rio Grande!

In the evening, we set out to Oak Springs for a late afternoon hike. We got incredible views of the Window and enjoyed golden hour over the Chisos.

Being a ranger and exploring beautiful places is a dream come true. This job something I’ve wanted to do for the longest time and I’m glad I get to live it up with my love and wonderful people behind me. Until next time, Ranger On!