Ancient Egypt visits the Big Bend
Last week Steve Gingold commented that some rock formations in Study Butte reminded him of a Sphinx. That in turn reminded me that after I’d started the long trek home to Austin on November 23rd I stopped one last time in Big Bend National Park to do a little wandering and picture-taking. Among the things I photographed were the ocotillo you saw last time and this sandstone formation that looked to me like a Sphinx, although in this view it seemed to be having a bad hair day. The structure also looks to me now like the front end of a streamlined locomotive from the mid-20th century.
With those fanciful visions we bid adieu to the scenic Trans-Pecos desert of west Texas. Tomorrow I’ll begin to catch you up on some of the things that have been going on in nature close to home for the past month.
© 2016 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
A friendly looking sphinx, methinx.
Gallivanta
January 3, 2016 at 5:09 AM
I appreciate your verbal hijinx
With respect to the sphinx.
Steve Schwartzman
January 3, 2016 at 9:28 AM
Methinx was not quite up to the standard of ‘orangefully.’
Gallivanta
January 3, 2016 at 7:45 PM
At least methinx rhymes with sphinx; nothing rhymes with orangefully.
Steve Schwartzman
January 4, 2016 at 12:03 AM
True.
Gallivanta
January 4, 2016 at 2:48 AM
I can see it.
Jim Ruebush
January 3, 2016 at 7:32 AM
It took much less than forty winks
For you to see this desert sphinx.
Steve Schwartzman
January 3, 2016 at 9:29 AM
I agree it looks like these. http://bit.ly/1YYG2RN
Jim Ruebush
January 3, 2016 at 9:35 AM
Right you are. I searched with “streamlined” as part of my search string but hadn’t thought of including “Art Deco,” which is better.
Steve Schwartzman
January 3, 2016 at 10:16 AM
The similarity to the Egyptian Sphinx is obvious, although this one seems a little pensive, and perhaps even melancholy, as though he’s thinking, “He gets all those pyramids, and all I have are these thorny plants and a view of some mountains.”
Wouldn’t he be surprised to know the Great Sphinx sometimes thinks, “I wish I had some ocotillo, instead of all this sand.”
shoreacres
January 3, 2016 at 8:28 AM
First I saw a camel and then the next day a sphinx, both in stone. I’d noticed the camel on my previous visit a decade earlier, but not the sphinx, which is smaller and not visible from the nearest road. Now you’ve made me wonder if people in Egypt or nearby country have imported ocotillo as a curious exotic.
Steve Schwartzman
January 3, 2016 at 10:10 AM
One could do worse than be an imaginer of rocks!
Dianne
January 3, 2016 at 10:46 AM
Well said, and it’s not even Frosty in Austin.
Steve Schwartzman
January 3, 2016 at 11:40 AM
😉
Dianne
January 4, 2016 at 10:24 AM
It could be both, I think.
Have a great week,
Pit
Pit
January 3, 2016 at 11:51 AM
Two for the price of one: so much the better.
Steve Schwartzman
January 3, 2016 at 1:55 PM
I can definitely see a face there
Raewyn's Photos
January 3, 2016 at 12:18 PM
You’re not alone; this time I think most people will see some kind of face.
Steve Schwartzman
January 3, 2016 at 1:56 PM
I can certainly see the Sphinx .. And I don’t mind the hair either 😉
Julie@frogpondfarm
January 3, 2016 at 10:19 PM
Perhaps you’ve learned how to tame bad hair.
Steve Schwartzman
January 4, 2016 at 12:04 AM
Lol
Julie@frogpondfarm
January 4, 2016 at 11:42 AM
I do see the Sphinx, but my first vision was a speeding train…speeding, of course, being part of imagination as the rock is obviously waiting at the station.
Steve Gingold
January 4, 2016 at 5:44 PM
I’m with you up to the train in the station part, but I’ll grant that the speeding is taking place down the tracks of your imagination—not a bad thing.
Steve Schwartzman
January 4, 2016 at 7:15 PM
A Sphinx, a stream-lines locomotive, a lion’s head. Very striking.
LensScaper
January 6, 2016 at 2:43 AM
I’m glad you were triply struck with it.
Steve Schwartzman
January 6, 2016 at 7:26 AM
Oh my gosh! That’s awesome.
Shannon
January 15, 2016 at 6:27 PM
This was a bit off the highway and not visible from it, so I’m assuming that unfortunately you didn’t get to see it. Next time.
Steve Schwartzman
January 15, 2016 at 10:16 PM
With four kids, we pretty much stayed in the ‘fun’ places that the kids could explore and Mom and Dad could bird. Yes, maybe next time…probably in a couple of months. We can’t wait to get back.
Shannon
January 16, 2016 at 8:31 AM
I’m happy to hear you’ll be heading back so soon. That way you’ll get to see more wildflowers, both in Big Bend and along the way.
Steve Schwartzman
January 16, 2016 at 8:51 AM
I posted the BBNP piece. Only took a month. Nothing happens fast over here. 😀
Shannon
February 3, 2016 at 7:25 AM
Poco a poco se alumbra el foco, says the Spanish proverb (which I made up): The flashlight’s light slowly gets bright. Who needs immediacy, right?
Steve Schwartzman
February 3, 2016 at 10:14 AM
It’s definitely Sphinx-like in my mind. A Sphinx that’s been sitting in an open top car going fast along the highway. That would explain the hair do. It also reminds me of pictures of dogs that have their heads stuck out of car windows – their ears are blown back and they have flattened cheeks from the wind blast. 🙂
Jane
January 23, 2016 at 12:46 AM
So we might say you’ve added a bad fur day to a bad hair day.
Steve Schwartzman
January 23, 2016 at 6:22 PM