Seriously. Towering mountains as in
7,000 plus elevations. Who knew?
To backtrack just a bit, we left Luling
on Sunday morning and spent the night in Fort Stockton at the
Parkview RV Park, just off I-10 and Highway 385.
Since I always like to include a mishap
or two (just for fun, you know?) we had the requisite one in that
park. The first site we pulled into was very uneven and we decided to
switch to another one. However, I had already turned off the
accessory (towing) mode in the car and put it in park, although it
was still hooked up to the moho. Well, we forgot this little fact and
Bill pulled the moho out while I walked alongside since we were only
moving a few spaces. I realized right away that the car was being
dragged and the wheels were not turning, so I tried to get his
attention by yelling, running alongside and waving my arms
frantically. Of course, he couldn't hear me with the moho running so
I raced to get in front of him still yelling “STOP, STOP!”. I bet the people in the office were well entertained as they watched
us from the window. Luckily, the short distance didn't seem to damage
anything in the car, but jeez – another cautionary lesson learned.
We headed south on 385 on Monday
morning and arrived at Big Bend National Park early in the afternoon.
The first visitor center is at the north entrance, and we stopped
there only to find it closed. However, we were already getting the
vibe of this very unusual park the minute we stepped outside. I have
never heard a quiet quite like the stillness you experience here.
There are no planes overhead, no road noise, nothing...just
stillness, broken only by the sounds of birds and insects.
We continued on into the park and
stopped at the Panther visitor center which was open. Upon checking
in, we were advised that a national park pass would be $20 for a
week...unless one of us was at least 62. Well, this was the day
before Bill's birthday but the ranger was nice enough to slightly
fudge the date and she sold us the senior pass - $10 as as a one time
fee and it is good at ALL national parks for our entire lifetimes.
What a deal!
The ranger directed us 20 miles down
the road to the Rio Grande Village RV Park, where we had a camping
reservation. We quickly got set up – the campground is nothing
much, just a paved area with hookups - we actually were advised to
angle into our site since the campground has been here since the days
when there were no 42 foot RVs, and we could only fit by going in
sideways. But oh, the surroundings...
You don't think of rugged towering
mountains when you think Texas, but that's exactly what is here.
Again, I wish I was a better photographer because there is just no
way to capture the magnitude with my skills but here goes:
Since the day was getting on by the
time we were ready to exploring, we decided to stick close by. We
drove down to the Hot Springs Road and turned off the main drag onto
one of the many gravel roads in the park. I loosely call this a road
– it was a thin, potholed line of gravel that sort of hung off the
side of the mountain, winding around and down into a small canyon.
Just a little bit terrifying...but we
got to the end and there was a short walking trail down along the
river to a hot springs pool that is a constant 105 degrees. Along the
way, there are some old buildings with nothing indicating what they
were, so I'm not sure if they were park buildings or if they pre-date
the park.
On Tuesday we started the day with a
bike ride. While there aren't specific bike trails, there is so
little traffic in the park that you can just ride along any of the
roads for miles without seeing a vehicle and there are lots of places
to stop. We met other riders along the way and broke up our ride by
some long chats, but meeting people from all over is one of our
favorite things. We rode to the Boquillas border crossing, which was
closed at the time. It was a bit comical, since I really don't think
this gate keeps anyone out of the country, especially since the Rio
Grande is only inches deep at this time and the locals go back and
forth selling their trinkets all the time.
We walked up a trail to an
overlook and while we didn't continue all the way down, we met some
folks who told us there was a “singing cowboy” a bit further down
the trail with a tip jar. It was interesting to see that the artisans
left their little crafts in stashes along the trail with an open jar
for cash and a price list. Some of the things they make are really
beautiful, like scorpions or cactus fashioned out of copper wire and
beads. They must be very trusting souls to leave cash sitting out
there but no one seems to disturb it. I like to think the kind of
people that would steal from those in poverty don't come to places
like this. I hope not, anyway.
As an unrelated but interesting side
note, let me address cell and internet service in the park. Hoo, boy.
We were told by the park staff members that the only place in the
park where you can get a cell signal is a small paved pull out on the
side of the road between the mountains, about 25 miles from our campground. We found this
to be absolutely true. So a couple of times each day, we drove out
there to check for messages and make any necessary phone calls. As
far as internet, there was wifi in our campground office but you had to sit just outside the office to get it. So at any given time, you
see campers with laptops or tablets sitting at the picnic tables in
the office area taking care of business. Even our phones couldn't
pick anything up – no 4G, no 3G, nothing anywhere in the park. It
felt a little weird to be so out of touch but we adapted.
We finished the day with a nice
birthday dinner at the Chisos Mountain Lodge.
Wednesday we again started out on our
bikes but our ride was cut short when Bill lost a brake. He returned
to the campground while I continued on for a few miles. We set out in
the car later and drove out to the Chisos basin. This is a sort of
valley completely surrounded by huge towering peaks all around. It
was pretty spectacular. We hiked a few of the short trails and the
views were pretty amazing. The weather didn't lend itself to anything
too strenuous since the temps were in the high 90s. We left Chisos
and headed out to Castillon, another area of the park. The distances
are something to account for – we put well over 300 miles on the
car just driving around the park from one area to another and we
certainly didn't see everything. But Castillon was worth the drive –
it sits above the Santa Elena Canyon which is actually in Mexico. The
isolation everywhere in the park is remarkable, but in Castillon it
was even more pronounced. There were two employees there, who live on
site. There is no going to the bar after work for these folks –
they have to drive 30 miles to get to a spot where they can make a
phone call. I don't even know where they grocery shop since the
little stores just carry convenience items. They must have gotten
good at provisioning once in a while when they have the chance.
We've met a lot of people here, mostly
from Texas since very few people travel to Big Bend from around the
country, but interestingly enough we met several people from Germany.
I'm not sure why this park isn't more well known – it's really
spectacular and would be well work a trip from anywhere for those
interested in seeing natural surroundings with very little
development and very few people.
This morning (Thursday) we are getting
ready to head back up north to Fort Stockton, where we'll spend a day
or so restocking and doing some needed shopping before we head into
New Mexico.
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