Sherry, If you go to see the giant redwood/sequoia trees, please realize that there are dozens of places worth seeing them along the coast from the CA/OR border to central California and in the Sierra Nevada Mountains along the CA/NV border that each have their own unique appeal. It would take a week just to explore all of the big tree NP's, SP's, SRA's, SNR's and Monuments in CA alone. When I lived in San Francisco, Russian Gulch, Big Basin SP and Mount Madonna were favorites, but after I moved to Carmel it was all about Polo Colorada Canyon and the many spots around Pfeiffer Big Sur. I'll have to tell you about my very rare and unique coffee table made from a Polo Colorado Cyn giant and Bixby Creek driftwood sometime. Yes, "mesa" is a term loosly applied to any landform in the arid west with a flat top and verticle cliff sides, and they are quite common. They are also referred to as table mountains, buttes, potrero or tuya depending on how they were formed and their characteristics and can vary from small ones like those in the BDW to the Grand Mesa in CO which is the largest in the world at around 500 square miles on top. Sometimes plateau is also used wrongly. They don't always have the verticle sides and are much bigger covering huge areas up to millions of square miles. Yes I could move back to St.George I guess, although in many ways the cost of living is higher there than Vegas. I'm sure some of my old friends are still there and kicking. But since my Dad lives there now I wouldn't even consider it.

I really wish someone was in the picture. I have never been to that area before and really don't know the size relations here. I can't tell if it's a big mountain or not.

DH got his senior pass in March at a National Park Kiosk for $20.00. It has more then paid for itself for us. We have RV'd for 40+ years and spent more for one visit to a park then we did for this pass. Something some might not know is that if any of the places you go have a campground within the park that is ran by the Park service not a concessionaire then your camp fees are 50 percent off. Many places we have paid $10.00 a day. I recently made reservations to Fort Pickens, FL and for 8 days the total cost is 104.00! Also several times in our travels we pull into a park campground just to use the RV dump and water fill. As I said the Park Pass easily pays for itself. I would have been glad to pay the 80.00 then for it!

Jinx - I'm so glad you mentioned Enchanted Rock! I have not thought of that places in ages, and have never actually BEEN, but it used to be on my "go there" list back when I was frequenting a climbing gym. That was so much fun, and the group I was training with was going to be making a field trip to Enchanted Rock to practice bouldering skills, but I wasn't able to be a part of that. These days, I wouldn't feel confident enough to do any climbing (or bouldering, really), but I'd still like to go there to hike. It looks like there are a lot of other hiking opportunities to be found in the Hill Country too. The Twig looks absolutely amazing! Wow, I would love to stay there! (Isn't that chandelier wonderful!) I mentioned Enchanted Rock to DH, in case he wanted to consider something a bit closer to home than Big Bend, but I think he's still pretty sold on trying to go to BB later next year. The Nuevo Terlingua casitas are stellar! If we go, we will likely choose a different accommodation than previously considered (so, not the adobe I shared earlier in this thread), having found a simple little 2-bedroom trailer very near the park entrance that would suit us well. We are staying in southern Colorado this summer, and I ALMOST thought we should just cancel that trip and go to BB instead, but then I went back to looking at photos and videos of the area where we'll be, and I absolutely have to go here again. Spent a lot of time in this area in my younger years, and really want to share it with DH. Weminuche Wilderness: