Big Bend National Park

          Big Bend National Park, located in west Texas where the Rio Grande takes a 90 degree turn along the border between Mexico and the US,  is an intriguing place, with great scenery, excellent hiking trails, and many geological, biological, and archeological wonders. It was a terrific place to spend four days! What makes this park so interesting is that it comprises three geographic features, which come together in one large ecosystem – Chihuahuan desert, high (sky island) mountains, and rivers. All around you find evidence of erosion, volcanism, and tectonic plate movement, and because of this diversity of geography, Big Bend also has an incredibly diverse array of flora and fauna – representing the furthest north and south ranges of some animal and plant species. It is not that different than what we saw in Arizona and Utah and Death Valley, but it is compacted into a single park, which gives Big Bend its singular appeal.

 

                Before we could begin our exploration of the park, we had some house-keeping to take care of. Our bedroom slide wouldn’t open, so Lew had to climb up on the RV and cut off the “roller-thingy” on top of the slide that protects it from leaves, rain, etc. Now, whenever we have to pull in the slide, he needs to climb up and sweep debris off the top first! Oh, the joys of RVing…

 

That done and settled in, we took off for our first of four hikes in Big Bend National Park – Boquillas Canyon, not far from our campground at Rio Grande Village. It’s the longest (33 miles) and deepest (7000 ft at one point) canyon in the park, best seen from a boat, unfortunately. We took a short 1.4 mile hike to the entrance to the canyon and the water’s edge, but could only imagine what it looked like further down river.

 

The next day, as the weather warmed, we took to the mountains, hoping to hike the popular Lost Mine Trail. Unfortunately, it is so popular and there are so few parking spots, even at 9:45 am we were too late. Instead we thought we’d hike a 2 mile trail near the Chisos Basis Visitor Center. We then took a “short” detour on another interesting sounding trail (Laguna Meadows) that ended up being much longer and much harder than we had expected. By the time we got to the saddle, I was too tired to continue, so Lew went on, hoping to get to the south rim, while I waited an hour, and then headed back down the trail. I ended up hiking about 6.5 miles and Lew went nearly 13 before we were both down to the visitor center again. The scenery was fabulous, but I wasn’t prepared for how strenuous the hike turned out to be. We slept well that night!

 

Our next adventure was to one of the most popular spots in Big Bend, way on the other side - Santa Elena Canyon. Just driving there was amazing, along the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, which skirts the western slopes of the Chisos Mountains. We saw  evidence of repetitive volcanic activity and erosion, making for very interesting landscapes. 

Santa Elena Canyon itself is a 1500 ft vertical chasm carved by the Rio Grande through pure limestone. Again, we took a short 1.7 mile hike down to the entrance to the canyon, but would have needed a raft to really appreciate the majesty of the canyon itself.

           On our last day at Big Bend we headed back up to the mountains to avoid the extreme heat along the river. This time we took the 5.5 mile Window Trail out of the Chisos Basin campground. Hiking through some surprisingly lush areas along Oak Creek, we arrived at a V shaped slickrock notch where Oak Creek falls over the cliff to the desert below. All the while we were surrounded by the soaring Chisos Mountains. It was a glorious morning.

                We left Big Bend half a day earlier than expected because we didn’t want to deal with the 95 degree temperatures that were predicted the next day. But we will continue to have fond memories of our time there.