Big Bend National Park

Several times on this trip, Bob and I have been told to visit Big Bend National Park. It really wasn’t on our radar screen since it’s in the bottom SW corner of Texas, very far from anywhere, but we thought after all the comments, we should come.

Big Bend is over 800,000 acres of diversity. It includes 118 miles of the Rio Grande and a shared border with Mexico. We took a trail down to the river and were surprised to see that it was so low that we could easily walk across to Mexico. The rest of the park is Chihuahuan desert and the Chisos Mountains, ranging from 2000 – 8000 feet in elevation. Even though it is a huge park, not a lot of people visit and it remains a true wilderness.

Last year, Bob and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about and identifying desert plants. As we headed into this area, we were excited to see many old friends – cactus, ocotillo, yucca, sotol, agave, creosote bush and honey mesquite, but things are very dry this year and the desert bloom has yet to happen. Even some cacti are starting to dry up and a ranger told us that the fire danger right now is extreme. Everywhere we went, we wished we had water to offer to the plants. On one little hike, we spotted a lizard on a rock. We stopped to say HI and on our way back, noticed he was still there. I quietly explained that I was going to leave him some water, and slowly poured some into a depression in the rock he was sunning on. As soon as we stepped back, he entered the newly formed pool and drank. Finally we were able to help a little guy in need.

Big Bend is a remote wilderness and while it is dry and hot, there are still some big predators here. Black bears and cougars had been seen several times this week, but we weren’t one of the lucky observers. We didn’t see any fox or javelinas either, but got several coyote serenades during the night. This area is also home to hundreds of bird species throughout the year and we spotted three roadrunners.

After our winter in Florida with beach walks at sea level, I was anxious to get out and hike in the mountains. I knew it would be a challenge, but we made an 1100-foot climb ending with a fantastic view at over 6500 feet on the Lost Mine Trail. It was a little cooler at that elevation and there were also pinion pines along the trail for shade.

It has been very hot during our two days in Big Bend with temps near 100 during the day and dropping only to 65 at night. We actually ran our air conditioner in the RV for about 6 hours one day, something we rarely do. It has also been very dry and dusty. Hard to believe when we watch the weather channel and hear about snowstorms still hitting the NE and West Coast mountains.

There are so few visitors in the park that we kept running into the same people. We chatted with one nice couple from Napa on the mountain trail and had seen another couple from WA in the same parking lot. The next day we ran into both groups again!

Last year we were so happy to get to the desert after enduring the cold wet winter in Washington and Northern California. This year, coming from wintering over in Florida the desert seems a little too dry. After a couple more stops we will be in Sedona again. It will be interesting to see how Sedona feels this time around.