Following the Mexican Border

From the time we left Alpine, TX and headed to the Rio Grande, we were often within a stone’s throw of Mexico. Our trip from Big Bend west was along the Rio Grande and west of Las Cruces and El Paso we were often within sight of the border. In this picture, for example, the river is the Rio Grande and on the left side of the river is Mexico. This was in Big Bend Ranch State Park (in Texas), just west of Big Bend National Park.

It was somewhat interesting to see how many US Border Patrol vehicles and checkpoints there were along the way. We passed several and had to stop at a couple more. We were asked to produce our passports at one stop but the person questioning us was friendly and the stop was only a minute or less. We saw many Border Patrol vehicles roaming the roads and parked here and there along the way. I recall someone I know commenting about the "hassle" of all the checkpoints, but our experience wasn't bad at all. We read in the Travel Guide that some 60K illegals were arrested during a one month period in an area around a town in Arizona, just south of where we camped in Chiricahua National Monument, our destination for the day.