Texas' Gift to the Nation: Big Bend National Park

I still enjoy blogging!  I just don’t seem to do much of it anymore.  Maybe because we’re not full-time RVers anymore. Or maybe it’s because we bought and remodeled my childhood home these past couple of years and we manage to stay super busy in our little community and visiting with friends and family.  We do take a number of camping trips still, I would estimate close to 6 months out of the year.

 

We've also bought a new to us boat!  Looking forward to doing more fishing!

So what is our current situation?

The most iconic view in Big Bend National Park - The Window

We got a call late November to see if we would be interested in being maintenance volunteers at Big Bend National Park.  We thought about it and said we could come after Christmas but had obligations middle of February, so roughly we had about 7 weeks. Generally, you are asked to commit for 3 months (which is hard for us as we’re ready to put those jacks up and move in about 2 months!).  So, December 29, 2021, we arrived at the Rio Grande Village Maintenance trailer area for volunteers.  All in all, it’s a pretty nice spot out here!  We’re surrounded by mountains, really close to the river, have beautiful sunsets and sunrises, and good people to work with and fellow volunteers to visit with.

 

Can't beat our back yard sunset, overlooking Daniel's Ranch

Checking out the river bank

There are lots of roadrunners!

The Sierra del Carmen's command our view here.

We work 32 hours each, so our workdays are Monday – Wednesday, then half a day on Thursday.  The hardest thing is getting there at 7 a.m. when the sun hasn’t risen and it’s pretty chilly!  Ron is a really good asset here, me not as much lol. But we make a great team!

The irrigating here in Rio Grande Village makes it a green oasis.

The irrigation is historical.

Big Bend National Park lies in the northern part of the Chihuahuan Desert, one of North America’s four major deserts.  The rain gets blocked by the mountains, and the wind can blow and blow here!  The Rio Grande is a 118 mile desert oasis. The headwaters are in Colorado above Creede, and it’s just beautiful there, we’ve been there many times.  The Chisos Mountains reign high and green.  It really is a good place to spend some winter time here.  And if you’re wondering, about the only illegals we’ve seen are the horses, cattle and donkeys that cross the river into the park. We see lots of coyotes and javalinas. Even some beautiful bob cats. Here's the only picture I have been able to capture....a stinking javalina.

 

It was a beautiful New Year’s Eve. We drove out to the Hallie Stillwell Museum which is located outside of the park.  On the way home, we drove over the dirt trail to Terlingua Ranch where we made a cabin reservation and reserved a timeslot to drive through the Christmas Mountains for next Friday. We also went to one of our neighbor’s New Year’s Eve party for a little while where we met a few more folks that work in this park. New Year’s Day we shared our traditional meal of turkey, dressing, home grown black eyed peas, and mustard greens we brought with us from our garden with a few of our neighbors.

 

View of the Christmas Mountains

On Friday, January 7 we drove over the highway to Terlingua Ranch where we had reserved a cabin. Their café was having live music that night, which was enjoyable. And dinner was good.  The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast before heading out on the 4- wheel drive road through the Christmas Mountains. You reserve a time slot – either 8 am or 1 pm from the lodge as they only let one vehicle at a time on the road.  The drive and the scenery is outstanding and I recommend it to anyone with a high clearance 4 wheel drive vehicle.

 

The trail can get pretty narrow at times!

Sun is rising

This marks the end of the road where you turn around!

The start of the road!

Sunday, we drove over to the Chisos Basin.  It was a day and night of big wind.  We put our slides in as it sounds like the slide toppers would fly off!  Our satellite cable ended up breaking off inside the satellite from the wind.  Bummer! Ended up having to buy a new one, and that’s been a fiasco!

January 14 we crossed over into Boquillas, Mexico.  And yes, at this port of entry you take a rowboat across the Rio Grande for a fee of $5 each (includes a return trip!).  You are offered a donkey to ride ($5) and a tour guide ($5).  We decided we were good enough to walk the half mile into town on our own.  We went for the Mexican food and margaritas!  The food was a little bland and pricey, but the margaritas were good!

 

There's our ride across the river!

Here's your transportation

There are 2 restaurants in town. Their margarita here was better!

Every home had something to sell

Our lunch view, looking back to Texas

The restaurant where we ate

They used cabbage on my tacos!  Guess it's cheaper and has a longer life than lettuce.

Walking into town

Half mile walk into town

In the middle of the Rio Grande

Yep. Our boat ride

The Mexican greeting committee

Saturday we drove the couple of hours to Alpine to go to the grocery store.  Had the best hamburger at Alicia’s for lunch.  Beautiful scenery on the drive from Alpine to Terlingua (yes a little longer drive than going through Marathon).  You have to expect a 2 hour trip there and then 2 hours back so getting groceries is an all day thing!  Fortunately we’re able to fit a small chest freezer in our RV and we also have a pretty spacious pantry so we planned well before we ever headed here.

Sunday we decided to drive the River Road starting at the west and coming back east to Rio Grande Village.  It’s a very pretty drive, just takes most of the day.  The 52 mile road traverses the southern portion of Big Bend, roughly connecting the areas near Rio Grande Village and Castolon.  Parts of the road parallel the Rio Grande river but most of the road is a large distance from the river. To see the river you actually have to travel on one of the side roads.

Remains from Johnson's Ranch. In 1929, after several Mexican bandit raids, the US Army Air Corps established a large landing field here.

This is probably the largest adobe ruins in the park.

Always find left behind junk.

Border patrol out sniffing for someone.

Another good Jeep trail in the park is the Old Ore Road.  There’s lots of history in the park along this trail.  Naturally, it got it’s name from the early use of hauling lead, zinc, and silver ore from near Boquillas Canyon to the railroad in Marathon in the early 1900s. 

The desert grave of Juan de Leon, who was murdered at La Noria in 1933.

A different view of the Chisos

Overlooking Tornillo Creek

Sometimes is a rough ride!

I believe this is the remnants of McKinney Ranch

The colorful badlands in front of the Chisos Mountains.

 This summer we are planning a long trip that will take us into the Eastern Canadian provinces, where we have not traveled before. Looking forward to that. Along with more blogging!