On the Border at the Big Bend

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!

Into the Canyon

The Santa Elena Canyon is an 8-mile stretch of the Rio Grande on the western side of Big Bend National Park. It's probably the most photographed part of the park, so if you google Big Bend, it's likely what you'll see in the photos. The river winds through the canyon like a snake and has carved these steep cliffs that rise 1,000 to 1,500 feet above the ground. On this part of the border, there's really no need for a wall, it's already there. You'd need a parachute or a hang-glider to cross the border in the canyon. Along the trail, I had to keep a close watch on the youngest members of our party, as a slip or a trip would send you rolling through the cactus to get to your final high dive into the river. Not something any of us wanted to do. But after a mile or so, the trail dropped back down to the river bed and allowed us to test the waters, which move slowly and silently between the cliff walls. It was eerily silent. Every scream or clap the kids made echoed up into the canyon. Here are some photos:

Before we got there, we took a moment to stop and check out the overlook. 

On the banks of the Rio Grande.

Had to cross this makeshift bridge over the stream to get to the start of the trail.

That's a rock.

Thankfully, nobody fell in. After this trail, we headed to the farthest east part of the park where we made camp on a cold wintery night.

Looking Out the Window

Big Bend National Park has been on my list for... eh, almost the entire time we've lived in Texas. The problem is that this state is so BIG. I guess they do say everything is bigger here, and the drives from one place to the next is an example of that. It was about 500 miles to get to the only major national park in the state, so it took us most of a day. But the sights and scenery were worth it. We stayed outside the park the first night and checked out the McDonald Observatory, which is located out in the middle of nowhere due to there being nothing else located out there, making the night sky perfect for looking at stars. The next morning we drove into the park, did a lot of driving, and did a couple of hikes. The first one up was The Window. Of the half-dozen or so main hikes in the park, this was one of them. It was a 3.6 mile round trip to get to a place where the cliffs come together and form a "window" that looks out over a wide valley. The trip to the window was all downhill through a canyon, meaning the trip back was of course, all uphill. But the kids did great, without almost any complaints!

At the trail head, ready to embark!

Paused for some rock climbing...

Took the stone staircases into Mordor.

The Window!

It's hard to see in these photos, but if you climb down into the window you can look around that other rock out into the valley. It's a pretty steep drop-off though, so we didn't let the kids get much closer than this.

And of course we took a break back at the trail head to grab some lunch...

Pause for a photo, Rebecca...

We ended up not having enough time to do the other main hike in this area of the park - because it was around 5 miles round trip. We were initially going to camp at the campground here, but the sites were pretty small for our tent, and the ranger told us it gets 10 degrees colder here than the other campgrounds. So we opted to head back down the mountain... more photos to come.

The Snow Fell Down

The last time it snowed in Corpus Christi was 2004. But since we already had a hurricane this year (and the last one of those was 1971)... well, why not? A couple of weeks ago the temperature dropped down below freezing and the storm came in, with snow starting to fall after midnight (which thankfully Becky was kind enough to wake me up to see). In the morning, it was still on the ground... probably about 3 or 4 inches of it. It was perfect, wet, snowball/snowman making snow. So we engaged in a snowball fight, and the kids had an all around fantastic time doing something that northern kids do every year. Usually we're building sand castles this time of year, so it was something different.

So based on current weather patterns down here, we should expect snow again sometime in 2030, give or take a few years. Better go buy a snow shovel now to be safe.