Big Bend National Park

If you are wondering where the blog has been this past week, we have been in Big Bend National Park in Texas where there is no cell service which means no internet and no blog!

We've had a good time exploring the park.  We were camped at the west entrance for a couple of nights and then inside the park on the east side in the Rio Grande Village for three nights.  We had lots of wind on a couple of days.  Temps in the mid 30's early morning and high 90's late afternoon.  In the Chisos Mountains it was a cool 68 degrees at noon and then up to 95 in the lowlands an hour later! 

There weren't many flowers blooming yet but I took a few pictures of some of the ones we saw:

There were more trees on the Chisos mountain but it seemed odd to have a pine tree next to a cactus! It was definitely arid in the park.   There are such unusual rock formations.  Lots of rocks piled on top of each other like totem poles!  Different kinds of rocks from volcanic to sand stone.

The Rio Grande River is interesting. The parts we saw are not very wide, greenish and almost stagnant in some areas!  In the above picture the gorge between Mexico and the U.S. is amazing at over 1500 feet straight up!

We saw a bobcat, roadrunner, deer, turkey vultures, a possible rare black hawk  (they nest near the campground and another tourist thought it was the hawk) or it could have been a black vulture.  We saw a road kill Javelina (a wild pig).

We had a delicious dinner at the lodge in the Chisos mountains.  We had planned to sit on the patio after dinner to watch the sunset through "the window" the area in the bottom picture on the above collage.  The problem was, it was too cold!

From our campground there was a beautiful sunset with a full moon.  The Rio Grande River is in the lower cornerof the first picture.  One day we took a ride to the Boquillas Canyon.  The park had warned of Mexicans selling their wares on the U.S. side which is illegal.  In the picture you can see a horseman going back across the river and two in a small boat and a group on shore.  They left walking canes on the U.S. side.  None of us tourists went over to see them.  I guess they "trust" you will leave the money there for them.  It's amazing at how easily they can come across the river there, and there are border patrol everywhere!

Loving the national parks..."Ain't Life Grand!"