Big Bend in Texas is a landscape collage resulting from numerous geological events that were not exclusively localized to the area we now know as the National Park. The evidence of those geological events are as widely varied at the surface as they are scattered for hundreds of square miles. But a few hundred miles from Big Bend variety gives way to a landscape as flat as a pancake.
Midland Texas exemplifies this. After leaving Big Bend and passing through Fort Stockton, it is the largest city on Interstate 20 until hitting Abilene. From the opposite direction, Midland is just beyond the halfway point when en route from Dallas/Fort Worth to Big Bend.
I’m sure Midland has its attractions—other than being the boyhood home of Former President George W. Bush—but not a lot is apparent to passersby on the highway. And for that reason I’ve never had cause to stop there. That is until I was driving home in December of 2012.
It was early morning and that’s when I saw it: a stunning predawn horizon. Midland is “oil country” and it was oil pumps, vaguely back-lit by a not too discernable sunrise glow that caught my attention.
The imagery was so impressive that I pulled off the road, grabbed my camera and walked off into the flat, desert-like terrain. What started out as impressive quickly escalated into surreal. Over the next 45 minutes or so, the sun continued rising, a fog moved in, the sun began burning away the fog and then the fog seemed to fight back. The entire area was blanketed in a resurging fog so thick that I could hardly see a few yards in front of me. A train also rolled into this mix and actually stopped for a short time. Ultimately the climbing sun reasserted dominion and the fog evaporated.
The photographs of this gallery are ancillary to those of my visit to Big Bend, and represent just a few of the images I captured during that morning in Midland, Texas.
