The Big Bend of Texas (07-25-21)

 
Paul and I love this area of Texas, and have been here several times. Big Bend is one of my favorite national parks- but this time, we came for something else- Big Bend Ranch State Park.  We chose to stay at a resort that is closer to the state park than the national park. It has a pool, fitness room and restaurants. I guess part of the reason I have been choosing resort type places is because its so hot outside, we need things to do besides hike.

Anyway, our first morning there it was our intent to drive into the state park and do a hike. As we sat drinking our coffee, I punched it in Google maps and discovered its a 2 hour drive- mostly down a dirt road. Well, we had lingered too long over our coffee, so we didn’t make it to the park that day. I had forgotten that to get anywhere in this area is at least an hour and a half drive. We elected to leave very early the next day and make a whole day of it.

Instead, we took a short ride along the Rio Grande, enjoying the scenery.

Up early the next day we headed into the park. One of the things I noticed on the bone jarring ride down the dirt road, was a veritable forest of Ocotillo.  We are used to seeing one or two of these plants, but this was thousands of them. And there were “babies”, which we rarely see anywhere.

We stopped at the ranger station to get the scoop on what we should do, and she recommended Cinco Tinajas Trail, about 3 miles round trip.

A tinaja is basically a natural basin with water in it. We hiked as far along as we could without having to go IN the water, then headed up the side, to look down into the chasm.

Further along the trail we came upon a red tailed hawk.  It was really neat to see the mockingbird dove bomb the hawk repeatedly. He must have been near the bird’s nest but he sure didn’t seem to take the attack seriously.

He didn’t seem to care about us much either, showing his apparent disdain by ignoring us.

It was already getting quite warm by the time we finished that hike, so we elected to pass on the second one we were going to do, and just drove around the park, having decided that Big Bend Ranch State Park would be a One Day and Done kind of park.

On the way back to the rig, we stopped to do a short hike into Closed Canyon.  The walls of the canyon are so high, its partly in the shade, making it cooler in the canyon. However, it was 102* outside, and one of us thought that was a little too warm to venture very far into the canyon, so we took a peek, and headed back out.

Being gluttons for punishment, we were up and out the door by daybreak the next day, hiking up a hill adjacent to the RV park.

It was 4 miles round trip, giving us views of the surrounding area and the Rio Grande.

We were done early enough to spend some time in the pool before heading to nearby Study Butte for the 4th of July parade.

On the drive there, it became increasingly clear that there wasn’t going to be a parade, but we still had a great time watching the storm come through.

Not to be deterred, the following day we once again headed to Study Butte for the postponed parade, but it was not meant to be…another storm came through the area, and the parade was canceled again.

This time we skedaddled fast enough to make it to our favorite restaurant just ahead of the crowd.  Starlight Theater has excellent food, and live entertainment most nights. In fact, we ate here twice on this trip.

Our final day in the area we headed to Big Bend National Park.  Before we went, I checked a hiking map to see if there were any interesting trails that we hadn’t hiked yet. I didn’t think there were, and I was right.  We have hiked most of the trails that are under 15 miles…some of them 2-3 times. So, I picked my favorite trail, and that’s what we hiked- Lost Mine Trail.

On our way in to the park we were kind of happy to see the cloud cover hanging over the Chisos Basin.  Clouds would make the hike much cooler….as long as they cleared before we got to the top.

Luckily they did, and we were able to enjoy the fantastic views at the summit.

Once our stay at Big Bend was over, we headed to El Paso to see Paul’s mom.

Boquillas Del Carmen, Mexico (12-05-14)

Our final adventure in Big Bend National Park was a day trip to Boquillas del Carmen, Mexico.  The day started in an unusual way for this area of Texas- with fog clinging to both the roads and mountains.










  Boquillas is a small town in Mexico, that until 2011, was a “soft” border crossing. Mexicans would casually cross to shop in the United States, since the nearest grocery store in Mexico is a 3.5 hr drive down a dirt road.

 Americans would cross just as casually to explore Boquillas, eat lunch and buy souvenirs. September 11th changed all that, and devastated this small town with a population of just 300.  The border was closed.  Period.  No more crossing at all. The town inhabitants waited in vain for it to re-open, and eventually, many of them moved away to find new jobs.




Finally, in April of 2013, the border re-opened, but it will never be quite the same again.  Now Mexicans need a visa to cross into the U.S. and Americans need a passport to cross into Mexico.

Well, with passports in hand, the 6 of us began the trek to Boquillas del Carmen.  After an hour and a half drive, we reached the ranger station at the crossing, where we were briefed on the do’s and don’ts of crossing into Mexico.

Our options for crossing the Rio Grande were wading/swimming (not recommended) or paying Victor $5.00 to take us across in a boat. 

So, after a short boat ride, we were in Mexico.

The next step was to get to town, a mile up the road, where we would need to check in with immigration officials. 

Our options for that segment of the journey were to walk a mile uphill, ride in a pickup truck taxi, or ride burros.  We chose the burros. 

I think we laughed all the way up the hill.

  Our handler was Paulo.  He kept the burros moving, and we assumed that once we got up the hill, his job would be done, but we were wrong.

He walked us to the immigration building, waited for us, and gave us a tour of his town.  In fact, he stuck by us all day, right up until we crossed back over.  There aren't many jobs in Boquillas, so working for tips may be one of the better ways to make money.

Paulo spoke very little English, so the little bit of Spanish that we knew came in handy.  In fact, we learned later that one of the effects of the border closing is that the children of the town don’t speak English as well as the older people.






Paulo was very proud of the new hospital and school in town, and seemed happy to report that soon the town will have electricity, generated by a new solar station.  The residents will pay for the electricity they use, but the money will go into a fund to replace the batteries when the time comes.  Very clever.




  We worked up an appetite on the short tour, and had lunch at one of the two restaurants in town. 

The food was good, and the beer was cold!

Afterwards we wandered across the street to the other restaurant, which had a nice view of the mountains and the river.  So nice that we decided we weren’t in a rush, and sat down to have a margarita. 

The owners of both restaurants were very friendly and spent quite a bit of time chatting with us, sharing stories about their lives in this small town.

After purchasing our souvenirs, we decided it was time to head back.  The border crossing closes at 5 pm.

  Once back in the U.S., we all had to take a turn at the immigration kiosk where we inserted our passport for inspection, and spoke on the phone to an immigration officer.

All in all it was an easy process and a great way to spend an afternoon.

Big Bend Adventures (12-04-14)

Since no one can hike all day, every day, we looked for other adventurous outings to fill our time.

Eating may not seem adventurous, but dinner at the Starlight Theater is always a fun time.  Some day we’ll branch out and try other restaurants, but at this point, we've always headed here. 

The food is excellent, there is usually live music, they have $2.00 Margaritas, and you can’t beat the sunset view from their front porch.

We thoroughly enjoyed the original songs by Moses Martinez, touting the benefits of living in Terlingua, Texas.  As quirky and “off the grid” as the town is, you never have to walk anywhere in Terlingua.  There is no one who won’t stop to give you a ride. 

And, of course, the town is 90 miles from the nearest traffic light.

The hot springs are always a welcome destination after spending several days on the hiking trail.  It’s on the opposite side of the park, so we combined it with another trip. 

Cooler weather would have kept us hanging out in the 103* water longer, but we still enjoyed sitting and watching the Rio Grande River flow by.

We have had two major outings, and they were both adventures that we’ve never been able to do before:

Rio Grande Rafting Trip

Rafting down the Rio Grande is something that Paul and I have always wanted to do, but there is hardly ever enough water in the river for this particular adventure. 

With all the recent rain, the river is flowing pretty strong.  Paul and I were the only takers for this trip, so we spent the day on the water with just our guide, John Parker.

The river led us through Colorado Canyon, where the “rapids” were fun but barely worthy of their name.

Our lunch was over the top, with enough food to feed a much larger crowd- and it was all set up on a table, complete with tablecloth and paper plates.

I think the best part was our conversations with John.

  It was interesting to hear about the town and the area from the perspective of someone who decided years ago to make it his home.  John came for the hot springs, and loved the town so much he bought property 16 years ago, for a mere $100 an acre.

We learned so much from John that in the days following our river trip, our conversations were peppered with the phrase "John said"...

As for our other adventure- well, this post is getting to be too long, so I will give our other trip it’s own post..

Desert Hikes (12-02-14)

The main attraction at Big Bend National Park is the hiking- so that’s mostly what we've been doing while we've been here in Terlingua.

Ok, well maybe that’s not quite all we've been doing.  We did have a bourbon tasting session, courtesy of Dave….

I told them to act drunk and this is the best they could do.  At least they tried! 

Anyway, as you can see, we are having quite the fun time here.  And we have gone on quite a few hikes.





What’s nice about having the six of us here is that we can do things together, or we can go off on our own.  We did a little of each over the past week:

Nancy hiked with Paul and I to the Mule Ears Lookout.

 

It was about a 4 mile hike, and we agreed that the mule ears looked more like an eagle or Batman or something.

We all hiked to the Red Buffalo. This is a short hike, about a mile and a half, but there is no trail, so you have to find your own way through the desert.

I had the breadcrumb trail on my GPS from the last time we hiked this, but it didn’t help much because we didn’t really know where we were going last time- we meandered a lot.  This time we found it a lot faster.

So, “it” is a  pictograph of a buffalo.  The rangers don’t want hoards of people flocking to it, so there is no trail and it isn’t on any maps. Paul and I found out about it from someone who volunteered at the park, and we have hiked to it several times.



On the way back we saw two rabbits- one ran away pretty quickly, but this one decided to pretend he was a rock and just hoped we would go away.





Paul and I hiked the 5 mile long Chimney trail by ourselves.  The trail leads across the desert to some rock formations called the chimneys.

The canyon in the background is Santa Elena Canyon.

The rocks were fun to climb on, but they are also interesting because they contain Indian rock art and some ruins left by the previous Indian inhabitants.



 
We all took the scenic drive over to Santa Elena Canyon.  There is so much more water in the river right now, it looks like a different place!




Some of us had an impromptu contest to see who could throw a rock into Mexico (at least halfway across the river). Its a lot further than you think (that’s my story, anyway) and some of our rocks barely made it into the water at all- Paul is the only one who participated who actually threw a rock into Mexico.

This canyon is gorgeous and always makes for a good hike.

Julie and Mike hiked with Paul and I to the Burro Mesa Pour Off.  Basically, this is the path that water would take if it rained, so it’s not a trail you’d do in bad weather. I forgot my camera so we had to take pictures with Paul’s phone.

 


It was a fun, 4 mile trail, but had a fair amount of rock scrambling, so with Julie’s bum knee, she and Mike elected not to go all the way to the end.

Right behind Paul is the Pour Off- the drop just beyond where he is standing is about 130 feet to the desert below.

 

We have also hiked the lower Burro Mesa trail and have seen the pour off from the bottom. Here’s a picture of Paul from 2009 when we hiked the lower portion.





Random Question: Why did the tarantula cross the road?