Big Bend National Park, Texas

Wow, what a great place! Vast, expansive, peaceful, impressive. It takes some effort, mainly in the miles to get there, but once you arrive, you really feel like you have the place practically to yourself. It’s rich in geological features, there are many species of living creatures, the morning and evening light is gorgeous. We hiked and biked and drove all over the huge park.

Upon our arrival, we checked in to the visitor’s center to see about finding a campsite. Because of location in latitude and the very hot summers when things shut down, this time of year is their high season and there weren’t any open campsites for the first night. We did reserve a backcountry permit for the next night, and tried calling a few of the RV campgrounds located outside of the park limits.

We drove down to the Rio Grande Village Store in the southeastern part of the park, and just for shits and giggles, went in to see if any RV spaces had by chance opened up. Yup, we got lucky and got to pick out a spot down at the end of the park, with a view to the west, unobstructed by any other rigs. Plus full hookups.

We were feeling pretty good about it all, in such an amazing place, literally camping along the Rio Grande, the river that separates the US and Mexico. Interestingly enough, no wall, and the only Mexicans coming across the river came to set up their little handicraft shops- on a flat rock, or on the ground under a shade tree, with a canister for the customer to place their money for their purchase. It was totally honorary, nobody was present but they were keeping watch from across the river.

There is a border crossing right near where we were camped, called Boquillas, with the National Park staff serving as the Port of Entry staff. We took a bike ride down there to scope it out, and weigh our options for the next day- there were so many choices! We could come back with our passports, which we just happened to have brought with us, and pay a Mexican guy with a boat to ferry us across the river to the village for a meal or a beer, for $5 round trip. Or, we could get up early and go to the hot springs that were nearby along the river. Or we could go on a long hike. Or we could do some combo of any of those. Unfortunately, I forgot to grab my phone, so I didn’t get any shots of the border crossing.

We decided to get up early, drive the RV as far down the hot springs road as far as we could, park, and ride our bikes down to the abandoned resort.

Once we locked up the bikes, we hiked about another quarter mile up river, and were ecstatic to find that we were the only ones there. We’d heard that the springs can get so crowded that you have to wait for a vacancy.

Needless to say we wasted no time getting in. It was marvelous! Once folks started showing up and confirmed that our bikes had not disappeared, we headed back out and rode back to the rig, relaxed and refreshed. On the trail back to the bikes, we saw pictographs high up on the rock wall adjacent to the river.

After we’d vacated our campsite at the Rio Grande Village, we headed to the visitors center and asked the rangers about hikes and other interesting things to see. We drove up into the Chisos Mountains, the only mountain range in the US to be wholly contained within a National Park.

Our next stop was a trailhead for the Mule’s Ears Spring Trail. A nice 4 mile round trip hike to see a natural spring in the middle of the desert. It’s a place where frogs live and critters come to drink. We started our hike around 2:30 in the afternoon, probably not the brightest idea, but we were feeling so relaxed and lethargic from our morning soak that we thought we’d better go get some exercise.

I have to admit, I was really glad when that hike was done, as I was hot, dehydrated even though I drank a ton of water, and my limbs were like noodles. Moral of this story? Um, do the hike BEFORE the hot springs….

Since we were on the western side of the park, we decided to keep driving and look at some cool geology. There also was a campground down there and even though we’d paid $5 for the other back country site for that night, it was clear back on the other side of the park, so we figured we’d just check on availability at Cottonwood Campground since we were here. The rangers we spoke with suggested telling the campground host that we were REALLY tired, and in the interest of safety, they found us a place to park the RV, which we did, and we were directed to come back at 6:30 to park in the day use site. That was a great hot tip!!!

While we were killing time, we drove to the Santa Elena Canyon Overlook to have some sundowners (cocktails) and appetizers. We saw a pair of coyotes and a javelina, and met a nice young woman who was a traveling nurse and on her days off goes to as many National Parks in the US as possible, with a goal of seeing all of them.

Full moon rising over Big Bend

We really enjoyed this park and only dented the exploration opportunities, and definitely would love to go back to see more. Highly recommended!!!