Ginny & Dean's Excellent Adventures:Trip to Big Bend TX 2/06

Dean & Ginny's excellent adventures... Main Adventure Page

Big Bend National Park, TX -- 2/06: Part 2 << Part 1 Part 3 >>

Blackbirds weigh down the cane tassels. Big Bend is a large national park with distinct environments. We started from the bottom, at an elevation of 1800' at the shores of El Rio Grande. Across the river is Mexico, of course. The Rio Grande--the other side is Mexico

Roadrunner eating bugs in the campground

This time our campground greeters were a roadrunner and the three little pigs that are really ugly javelinas--we never did see Wile E. Coyote.

The three ugly havelinas

We took an evening walk up a hill trail overlooking the river and surroundings. The vistas were breathtaking.

The cane along the river is thick!!

Tall Cacti puncture the landscape

The Mexican hills are reminiscent of the Bad Lands that we visited in South Dakota.

Various cacti punctuated the landscape in beautiful ways. The growing conditions here are quite harsh, once you move away from the serpentine oasis provided by the river.

Thony barrel cacti with pink and yellow spines.

Their beautiful thoniness protects the cacti.

Our first stop was Boquillas Canyon. Being early morning, before the sun rose, we had this moonlit trail all to ourselves. We really enjoy that. Looking east across to the cliffs on Mexico's side, the dramatic popcorn cloud sunrise filled the sky.

<< The moonset, as we left our campsite the next morning, had such vibrant hues it looked like a watercolor artist went wild.

Sunrise over Boquillas Canyon walls

Trinkets for sale provided by the people across the river.

The river through Boquillas Canyon is quite small.

Boquillas Canyon

As we neared the end of the trail along this remote canyon, we were startled to see trinkets laid out for sale from "the people of Boquillas Canyon. For our little children and a school." Across the narrow river, we saw various watch stations. At this hour we didn't see any people, but we did see wild burros and wild horses roaming on both sides of the river.

I think the burro was smirking at us.

Dean snaps a wild burro

Boquillas Burro--is he smirking??

The next stop was the hot springs along El Rio Grande. We were surprised to learn that there were hot springs in this part of the country. We drove a couple of miles down an ungraded, steep, and narrow dirt road to reach the parking area. The half mile trail to the spring followed along some cliffs adorned with swallows' mud nests. The springs were definitely hot--105°! In the 1930s this was a commercial attraction and people constructed a stone pool to contain the hot water--the cool river water is on the other side of the wall at my back.

<< The trail from the hot springs back to the van didn't look like Texas--maybe more like Egypt. We surmised that the palm thickets have probably sheltered more than a few people working their way into the country.

This little >> primrose, lupines, and other hardy plants eke out a living in the sandy floodplain.

The general store was in operation in the 1930s before this was a park. << The former general store was in operation in the 1930s before this was a park. Today, with its old palm trees, the store looks like it belongs in an oasis in some faraway land.

We needed to pop our ears as we gained elevation on our way up to the Chisos Mountains. Below: our picturesque lunch stop.

We stop for lunch on the way to the Chisos Mountains.

On to the Chisos Mountains...

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