Once again we have reached a destination that has me reaching for my camera every 2 seconds. We only got here today and I already love this place. Its HUGE-now I know what is meant by "VAST". We drove for miles and miles and saw nothing but mountains, canyons, and desert, and once in a while we caught a glimpse of the Rio Grande. This isn't my first time seeing the Rio Grande, so I wasn't surprised when I saw it. I was, the first time, though. I had always heard stories of the Mexicans coming over the border by way of the river, as if it was a miraculous feat that they got across it. Well, we can't take our dinghy on the river because it isn't deep enough. There are some places that its only about 4 feet wide and a foot or so deep. Most of the river tours are not running right now because the water level is so low.
It took us two days of driving to get here from San Antonio. We elected to use the smaller highway and stay off the main interstate. Paul really finds it more relaxing, and its definately more scenic that way. We spent a night in the town of Marathon, which is a very small town, with one gas station. It is surrounded by beautiful mountains though.
Having been here for a day, I can see why people say to get all supplies before coming. The only food store in the town we are staying in, Study-Butte (pronounced Stoody beut), is a convenience store that just sells eggs, milk etc. The nearest "real" grocery store is over 80 miles away. This town, which is typical of all the towns around here, has about 15 buildings total. Since the reviews of all the campgrounds in the area were mixed, we hadn't booked one, figuring we'd check them out in person. We ended up choosing the one that is closest to the park, because it has wi-fi and we have cell phone service. Its also next door to one of the very few gas stations around that sell diesel fuel. So we are all settled in.
We took off this afternoon to scope out the area. Earlier in the day we had spoken to a ranger, who gave us ideas on hikes that would be appropriate for us, other activities we might be interested in, and he also mentioned that we could take Rte 90 when we leave to go to El Paso, since its such a scenic route, instead of the main interstate. That is, as long as our truck can handle a 2 mile stretch of road with a 15% grade , first going up, then going down, about 15 miles out of town.
Along the way this afternoon we drove to the ghost town of Terlingua. The town was a mining town- they mined mercury there until the mine closed in the 1940s. The population of the town, such as it was, abandoned the town soon after. We kept driving down rte 90, and came across an old movie set. There are the remains of about 5 buildings there which were used in several movies including "Streets of Laredo"(1995) "Journeyman" (2000) "My Maria" music video (1995) and "the Gambler V". We checked out the town of Lajita, which is almost as small as Study-Butte. It was a beautiful afternoon for a drive so we kept going, admiring the scenery around us. 
I have never been on a road that felt as much like a roller coaster as this road did. There were hairpin turns, huge hills, huge hills WITH hairpin turns, and many times that it looked like we'd go right off the edge. All with a speed limit of 35-50 mph. After driving for a bit we decided to check out the stretch of road with the15% grade. Oh man. We knew before we even got there that there is no way we'd take the Everest this way. Guess its the interstate for us.Tomorrow- hiking, maybe?
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