People call one particular spot high in the Chisos the top of the world. If you sit there at sunset you can watch the turkey vultures describing long, lazy figure eights from the top of the world down to the Window and back. At that time of day those vultures, not looking for food, simply seem to be enjoying their world and being alive. In those sunset cruises they’re living to the limit of their unique life form—and are glorifying Big Bend! Big Bend’s future, as its past, will be ruled in the long run by triumphant nature. The vulture’s self-celebration almost portends this. If we are entering another Ice Age, what a new lease on life this will be for the high mountain forests of Douglas-fir, ponderosa pines, Arizona cypress, and quaking aspen. What vindication for the staying power of these many beleaguered species. If on the other hand the desert pushes on, the summer rains don’t come, and the springs dry up for good, then Big Bend’s big trees will vanish like the dinosaurs. Such events are beyond our power to influence or foretell. Indeed, change may be so imperceptible, so slow, that people, supposing there are people left in Big Bend, may find it perfectly natural. Or change may be catastrophic, and those last Big Benders disappear without a trace, as though snatched off the Earth. And those, if any, who come after may then marvel over ruins and artifacts and ask what drove these Ancients from their homes. [Illustration: The peregrine falcon’s easy soaring belies its diving speeds of up to 320 kph (200 mph). Peregrines nest in the river canyons and high Chisos.] 3 Guide and Advisor [Illustration: Road into the park] Map of the Park [Illustration: The Roads to Big Bend] This Texas map shows the main routes to Big Bend National Park. Approaching Big Bend Big Bend National Park sweeps so far south that, since there is no road through it to Mexico, the park isn’t on the way to anywhere. That makes an automobile the best transportation bet. Trains and transcontinental buses approach only as close as Alpine and Marathon (see map). There is no public transportation to or through the park. You can fly into the Midland-Odessa airport to the north. Cars may be rented in Alpine and in the Midland and Odessa areas. The distances encountered are vast, so plan departures and arrivals conveniently for available facilities.