Neither Dave nor I had heard of Big Bend National Park until we reached Texas this winter. So many people talked about it and how beautiful it is, so we decided to add it to our agenda.

Originally we planned to stay here for three nights, giving us two days to explore the park but the more we read about it, we decided we wanted more time. We called both our Big Bend reservation and the next one, to see if both could accommodate moving our reservations back by one or two days. Terlingua could give us one more day, so we changed our plans. It is so nice to be able to be so flexible!

Some of the things we discovered about Big Bend are that it is comprised of three different physical elements, the Rio Grande River, The Chihuahuan Desert and the Chicos Mountains. This mountain range is completely encompassed in the park.

Below is our campground at Terlingua, Texas, just outside the park.

 

The next several pictures show the changing landscape, as we drove from Kerrville to Big Bend.

Dave found three different bike rides he wanted to do within the park, which fit well with our 3 day/4 night stay.  A couple of them included hikes.

On the first day, we rode to Chisos Basin and walked the “Window” trail.  There was a lot of confusion on the length of this walk.  Some places said it was 3.5 miles round trip.  Other places said it was closer to 6 miles.  It was described as a medium difficulty hike.  Our walking apps actually showed it to be 5.6 miles.

The day we hiked this, the temps reached the high 80’s. 

I am always a Nervous Nellie.  At the beginning of the hike, there were signs warning of bear and mountain lion.  I really did not want to encounter either one!  Luckily, there was a lot of foot traffic on the trail, which probably kept most of the wild life away.  The only thing we saw was a deer, but it bounded over the ridge before we could capture a picture.

Below are several pics of our hike.  Note the trail conditions as we progressed.  There would be an elevation change of 980 feet.  Most of this was gradual, but pretty steep going in, therefore steep at the end too, as we returned.

The window, from close to the end.

Dave made it all the way to the end of the trail.  I had wimped out about 50 yards back.

The hike was definitely a new type of experience for me and I am glad we took it.  We had not been prepared with enough water and the end of the return trip was all uphill and very hot.  I think I was close to heat exhaustion.  A lesson we learned was to get a back back and carry more water.

The next day, we took the longest ride, to Rio Grande Village an the Boquillas Canyon.  The city was really just a general store at the end of the trail where we met some people from Colorado.  The guy grew up in Wells, Minnesota.

See the rock below, that looks like it is ready to split away from the mountain.

 

That is Mexico, in the distance.

The Rio Grande, by Rio Grande Village.

After our ride, we wanted to check out the Terlingua Ghost Town.  Unlike touristy ghost towns, this is an actual ghost town.  When the Terlingua Mine closed, the inhabitants simply walked away.  The buildings have simply deteriorated.

 

 

On our last day, we rode to Santa Elena Canyon, to hike the trail down into the canyon.  The canyon walls are beautiful!  Warnings on this hike with a 90 foot elevation drop were mountain lions and rattle snakes.

 

 

Bottom of the canyon, with the US on one side and Mexico on the other.

Our view from half way down into the canyon.

This hike had only been 1.6 miles and was well worth it.  It was also easier because the uphill part was at the beginning, so downhill on the way back.  Here is a look at the trail going back down!

We took a shorter route back to the camp ground after our hike.  This took us on a 13 mile gravel road.  Wow, it was rough!

This home belonged to a large family.  The information did not tell us how large but the man lived here until his death at 108 in 1947.

 

 

Below are pics of many of the flowers and cacti of the desert in Big Bend.  We were lucky enough to visit close to prime time where a lot of things are blooming.  We found out that a few types of cactus will live for 50 years, bloom once, then die.  We saw some of them, but only in the death stages.

 

 

Near our campground was a small ranch with long horns.  We were really impressed with the large set of horns on one of them.

All in all, we greatly enjoyed our stay in Big Bend.  The wild life we saw were deer, road runners and javelina (look like pigs, smell like skunk).