Big Bend National Park

Awhile ago when I was just starting to dream about traveling in a camper, a young couple raved to me about Big Bend National Park.  So it was on my list of places to visit.  It's at the tip of Texas, where the Rio Grande makes a big bend with Mexico on the other side.  The terrain changed a great deal between Louisiana and East Texas, and even more heading into West Texas where Big Bend is located in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Terrain in W. Texas is dry and rocky with many mountain ranges, and desert plants.

Here you can see the Prickly Pear Cactus, and one of the many yucca type plants which  are so prevalent in west Texas.  These were growing at an RV park in Marathon.

The nights are also spectacular here.  They have some of the darkest skies in the lower 48 states and you can see the Sagittarius portion of the Milky Way spread across the sky.  I wanted to sleep under the stars but the nights were too cold.  

Big Bend is amazing -- a combination of desert, mountains and the green land along the river. 

The desert plants are dry and thorny, the terrain is rugged and the mountains tower over the scenery.  You would think in such a harsh environment, that it would feel tough and hard here, but it's the opposite -- it feels soft and peaceful.  

The Rio Grande is much reduced here because of water usage upstream.  Along the river, there is a green strip of vegetation  - a green oasis in the desert.  There is even a marshy area here, which you can see on the right, where they are conducting a reintroduction program for a tiny fish that only grows in Rio Grande marshes.

In many places, you can just wade across the river from Mexico into the US, and Mexican nationals make little displays of crafts along the trails on the US side for the tourists to buy.  The park brochure says it's illegal to purchase these, but there is little enforcement.  No one is going to walk through the 200 miles of desert south of the border to get into the US here.  And the crafts are charming.

It's a very open border here.  Plants, animals and people have always travelled back and forth freely.    In many places where there are canyons, there is already a wall between our two countries, like Boquillas Canyon, below, with its 1500 foot wall on the Mexico side.

Like many of the features of this land, people have been visiting the hot springs along the Rio Grande for tens of thousands of years.  In the 1900's, the springs were developed as a resort where people came to be cured by the waters.  The old stone work is still here, and the hot springs are delicious.

Hard to imagine anything more relaxing  

Can you tell I fell in love with Big Bend?  I only had three days here and want to come back and spend more time, so I put in an application to be a Volunteer In Parks at this National Forest.  With a three month commitment, they will provide a campsite with water and electricity, and I'd be working 32 hours a week -- probably at a Visitor Center or as a Campground Host.  I hope they choose me for next winter.