Nature Travelers
Contact Us​
  • Welcome
  • About
    • About Us
    • About NatureTravelers.com
  • Our Travels
    • USA Travels Overview
    • 31 Days In Iceland
    • 15 Days In The Galapagos >
      • Galapagos Resources
    • 28 Days In South Africa
    • 43 Days In Costa Rica
    • Travels In Canada
    • Cruises
  • Travel Journals
    • USA Journal
    • Iceland Journal
    • Galapagos Islands Journal
    • South Africa Journal
    • Canada Journal
  • Photo Galleries
    • USA Photo Gallery
    • Iceland Photo Gallery
    • Galapagos Islands Photo Gallery
    • South Africa Photo Gallery
    • Costa Rica Photo Gallery
  • Future Travels
  • Welcome
  • About
    • About Us
    • About NatureTravelers.com
  • Our Travels
    • USA Travels Overview
    • 31 Days In Iceland
    • 15 Days In The Galapagos >
      • Galapagos Resources
    • 28 Days In South Africa
    • 43 Days In Costa Rica
    • Travels In Canada
    • Cruises
  • Travel Journals
    • USA Journal
    • Iceland Journal
    • Galapagos Islands Journal
    • South Africa Journal
    • Canada Journal
  • Photo Galleries
    • USA Photo Gallery
    • Iceland Photo Gallery
    • Galapagos Islands Photo Gallery
    • South Africa Photo Gallery
    • Costa Rica Photo Gallery
  • Future Travels

Introduction to Big Bend National Park - Texas

5/13/2007

0 Comments

 
The middle of May is not the ideal time to be visiting Big Bend National Park in southern Texas along the Mexico border. It's already pretty hot by that time, but we were close by, and we hadn't been there before. So, we made a short exploratory visit, and we look forward to coming back down the road.
Picture
Boquillas Canyon - Big Bend National Park - Texas

Today we started exploring Big Bend National Park. We intended to do a little hiking.

Exploring Big Bend requires a plan. It's 80 miles from one end to the other along the east/west paved roads and there are over 800,000 acres. Hiking in Big Bend requires a plan as well.  And this time of year, that plan should include being on the trails early in the morning.

The heat here can sneak up on you and can be brutal.  This is no place for my usual shorts, t-shirts, and sandals.

We have heeded the warnings of our Big Bend experienced readers and the warnings found in just about every brochure you pick up.

Well, we have listened, except for the part about not hiking in the heat of the day, we just can't seem to get going early enough.

Therefore, we follow all the other precautions very closely.  We have lightweight, loose, breathable hiking pants and long-sleeve shirts, hiking boots, and wide-brimmed hats.

We have all sorts of first aid items, maps, tweezers & duct tape (to remove any spines), and more.  We have the basic, "hiking in Big Bend" safety kit. 

Everything we read says that we should drink a gallon of water per day.  So we carried a half gallon in our backpacks, and we have three gallon jugs and three and a half 24-packs of bottled water in the truck. 

We had no plans to do any long hikes today.  Otherwise, we would carry a gallon of water each.

As we got started, today's itinerary came together.  We would drive to the far east side of the park and knock out most of what we wanted to see there.

From where we are parked in Study Butte (stoody byoot), it is 29 miles to the Chisos Basin in the center of the park and 47 miles to Rio Grande Village on the east side.

So we drove first to Panther Junction (23 miles) which is where the park headquarters is located.  We asked the ranger about road conditions, trail conditions, and his recommendations.  First recommendation:  "Hike earlier in the morning."

We continued east and turned off the main road a few miles prior to Rio Grande Village to drive down to the Hot Springs just to see what that is all about.  Well, a little over half way down the rocky, bumpy gravel road, we see a sign:  "Road narrows, no dual wheel vehicles beyond this point."

We parked our dually pick-up truck and hiked the rest of the way to the Hot Springs - maybe a mile hike.  So it was interesting that there is a hot springs here in the middle of the desert and there were even some people sitting in the constructed "pool".

 

 

But for our two-mile roundtrip hike in the sun, we could have skipped this "attraction".

There are some pictographs and petroglyphs in the rocks leading to the springs, but after being at Seminole Canyon State Park, they weren't impressive.

Our attention turned to wildlife.  I got this shot of the tiny but loud Canyon Wren.  Their song is recognizable as it echos off canyon walls and sound as if they run out of gas at the end. They always put a smile on our face.

 

 

Then we had two lizards.

 

 

This one has a tail much longer that its torso.

 

 

And a Roadrunner up in a tree.

 

  

We hiked back up the hill to the truck and continued on.  We reached Rio Grande Village around lunchtime, and then continued on another few miles on the paved road where we stopped at the Boquillas Canyon Overlook.

 

 

It's hard to tell, but the Rio Grande cuts through the middle of these mountains, and our next stop was to hike through there along the river.

At the end of the road is the Boquillas Canyon Trail parking area.  At both this parking area and at Hot Springs, there are signs that say something to the effect of "There have been numerous vehicle break-ins here.  Take precautions to lock up and keep valuables out of sight."

Now the ranger told us that there have been "crime sprees" where cars have been broken into, but that it happens maybe two or three times a year.  That sort of gets in your head as you leave your vehicle behind out in the middle of nowhere.

We played the odds that it wouldn't be our time and took the 1.4 mile round-trip trail.  The other thing at Boquillas Canyon and Hot Springs is Mexican merchants set up along the remote river points and try to sell their goods.

Life has become more difficult for the people across the border due to increased restrictions after 9/11 and they have to do what they have to do, but it still takes away from the enjoyment when the signs warn you of vehicle break-ins and the illegality of buying from these merchants.

Okay, back to our hike.  From the parking lot, it is a fairly steep climb up and over a bluff before descending back down into the canyon. 

 

 

But it is a pretty cool view once you are in the canyon.

 

 

As we were walking, the donkey of one of the merchants started braying loudly and the sound echoed through the canyon.  It was pretty amusing and Linda loves donkeys.

 

 

But then the merchant came to heard the donkey back to his stand and we noticed the donkey was lame.  He could barely walk on his front legs.  It ruined Linda's day to see that poor donkey loaded up with gear and ridden out of the canyon.  It was really a sad sight.

The other sad sight was my face as I dropped a camera lens in the dust while changing lenses.  That can't be good.  Sheesh.

We hiked back to the truck.  No break-ins.

After a few hours hiking in the low elevations along the river where it is the hottest, we nixed any other hiking in that area.  The plan was to drive up into the higher elevations in the Chisos Mountains in the middle of the park and check it out.

Now, I know that this park is named after the big bend in the Rio Grande River.  But the actual big bend in the river is very remote and it is the least accessed part of the river.  Make no mistake.  The heart and soul of Big Bend National park is the Chisos Mountains and the Chisos Basin.

The six mile drive from the main park road into the mountains is beautiful. There is more green, and the colors are more vibrant and not as washed out.

 

  

And it is a good 15 - 20 degrees cooler than down by the river.

We checked out the little campground, and it is our intent to tent camp a night or two up in the mountains to get the full experience of the amazing night sky and waking to the spectacular views.

We decided to hike the 1.8 mile Basin Loop Trail. The photos were pretty bad after dropping my lens in the sand, but maybe we'll get some shots later.

With about 5 - 6 miles of total hiking, we were both in pretty good shape by the end and headed on home.

Along the way, we saw quail, rabbits, jackrabbits, roadrunners, and a couple of packs of Javelinas (aka Collared Peccaries).

 

 

This one was particularly curious as it walked up to the side of the road for a sniff.

 

 

They had a nice background for a little early evening foraging.

 

 

It was a long day.  There is a lot to see, and we learned that our stiff-suspension dually truck is not the best vehicle for exploring Big Bend, especially the off-pavement areas. A return trip with a different option is probably in our future.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Interests - Backpacking
    Interests - Bird Watching
    Interests - Boat Tours
    Interests - Caves
    Interests - Fishing
    Interests - Hikes
    Interests - Paddling/Float Trips
    Interests - Scenic Drives
    Interests - Waterfalls
    Interests - Wildlife - Alligators/Crocodiles
    Interests - Wildlife - Bears
    Interests - Wildlife - Beavers
    Interests - Wildlife - Bighorn Sheep
    Interests - Wildlife - Bison
    Interests - Wildlife - Coyotes
    Interests - Wildlife - Deer
    Interests - Wildlife - Dolphins/Porpoises
    Interests - Wildlife - Eagles
    Interests - Wildlife - Elk
    Interests - Wildlife - Javelinas
    Interests - Wildlife - Manatees
    Interests - Wildlife - Moose
    Interests - Wildlife - Mountain Goats
    Interests - Wildlife - Otters
    Interests - Wildlife - Owls
    Interests - Wildlife - Prairie Dogs
    Interests - Wildlife - Pronghorn
    Interests - Wildlife - Seals
    Interests - Wildlife - Whales
    Interests - Wildlife - Wolves
    National Conservation Areas
    National Conservation Areas - Red Rock Canyon
    National Monuments
    National Monuments - Bandelier
    National Monuments - Chiricahua
    National Monuments - Grand Staircase Escalante
    National Monuments - Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks
    National Monuments - Vermilion Cliffs
    National Monuments - White Sands
    National Parks
    National Parks - Acadia
    National Parks - Arches
    National Parks - Badlands
    National Parks - Big Bend
    National Parks - Bryce Canyon
    National Parks - Canyonlands
    National Parks - Capitol Reef
    National Parks - Carlsbad Caverns
    National Parks - Cuyahoga Valley
    National Parks - Everglades
    National Parks - Glacier
    National Parks - Grand Canyon
    National Parks - Grand Teton
    National Parks - Great Basin
    National Parks - Great Sand Dunes
    National Parks - Great Smoky Mountains
    National Parks - Hot Springs
    National Parks - Isle Royale
    National Parks - Joshua Tree
    National Parks - Lassen Volcanic
    National Parks - Mammoth Cave
    National Parks - Mesa Verde
    National Parks - North Cascades
    National Parks - Petrified Forest
    National Parks - Redwood
    National Parks - Rocky Mountain
    National Parks - Saguaro
    National Parks - Theodore Roosevelt
    National Parks - Voyageurs
    National Parks - Waterton Lakes (Canada)
    National Parks - Yellowstone
    National Parks - Yosemite
    National Parks - Zion
    National Preserves
    National Preserves - Mojave National Preserve
    National Wildlife Refuges
    National Wildlife Refuges - Ash Meadows
    National Wildlife Refuges - Bosque Del Apache
    National Wildlife Refuges - Laguna Atascosa
    National Wildlife Refuges - Okefenokee
    State Parks
    State Parks - Adirondack NY
    State Parks - Anza Borrego CA
    State Parks - Dead Horse Point UT
    State Parks - Del Norte Coast Redwoods CA
    State Parks - Goblin Valley UT
    State Parks - Hocking Hills OH
    State Parks - Jedidiah Smith Redwoods CA
    State Parks - Kodachrome Basin UT
    State Parks - Palo Duro Canyon TX
    State Parks - Patrick's Point CA
    State Parks - Prairie Creek Redwoods CA
    State Parks - Quoddy Head ME
    State Parks - Valley Of Fire NV
    States - Alabama
    States - Arizona
    States - Arkansas
    States - California
    States - Colorado
    States - Florida
    States - Georgia
    States - Kentucky
    States - Maine
    States - Michigan
    States - Minnesota
    States - Montana
    States - Nevada
    States - New Hampshire
    States - New Mexico
    States - New York
    States - North Dakota
    States - Ohio
    States - South Dakota
    States - Tennessee
    States - Texas
    States - Utah
    States - Washington
    States - Wyoming

    Archives

    September 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    March 2017
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    January 2015
    June 2014
    May 2014
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    May 2012
    August 2011
    July 2011
    March 2011
    January 2011
    October 2010
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    January 2009
    November 2008
    May 2008
    April 2008
    March 2008
    February 2008
    October 2007
    July 2007
    June 2007
    May 2007
    February 2007
    November 2006
    March 2006
    October 2005

Thanks for visiting and we hope you enjoy our website.

Contact Us

Nature Travelers  •  Howard & Linda Payne  •  Howard@NatureTravelers.com  •  www.NatureTravelers.com

All content, photos, and videos - Copyright © Nature Travelers.  All Rights Reserved.
Website Designed by: WCWDesigns