Big Bend National Park got its name from the "big bend" of the Rio Grande, where the river changes route and heads back north. The river obviously defines the border between the US and Mexico, so a good portion of the park is pretty near Mexico. We camped in the Rio Grande Village campground on the east side of the park, due to the sites being much larger than the mountain campground and there being a lot more available. The campground was pretty great, with a lot of open space and a decent camp store. I had hoped to take a row boat and a burro into Mexico, but even if my wife hadn't been fighting me on it, the border crossing was unfortunately closed. We did take a short hike along the river in the morning and got to see some of the locals on the other side. We even got to hear a song by Jesus the Singing Cowboy. He had a tip cup set up for hikers to donate, as he stayed safely on the other side and sang to us when we hiked by. It was another surreal hike into another amazing canyon, and absolutely beautiful.
The younger boys earned their Junior Ranger badges!
The park also had a relatively new fossil exhibit that showed how the landscape had changed over time and some of the fossils they'd found over the years in the park. This gator was a bit bigger than any you'd want to run into in the wild.
We saw a lot over the two days, but it definitely wasn't enough time to experience everything. There were several other big hikes we wanted to take, so I guess we'll have to make another trip one of these days!
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