Texas and the Big Bend

It’s a fairly long way to Big Bend, so named because the Park occupies the piece of Texas at the south end where the Rio Grande River makes a big bend to the north-east before resuming it’s direction southeast to the Gulf of Mexico. We picked up supplies in the small town of Alpine and really enjoyed the hour or so drive south to the park. A very scenic road that winds it’s way through hills and interesting rock outcroppings. The terrain becomes increasingly arid once in the Park, though. Very arid.

The main Visitor Information location for the Park is at Panther Junction and we stopped there briefly before heading down to the Rio Grande at the aptly named Rio Grande Village. This was the largest campground but was only partly full. It was only a short walk to the River. My biggest surprise was how small the Rio Grande is. It’s a long river, but here and a few other places where we saw it, you could probably wade the 20 or 30 feet across. Then, of course, you would be in Mexico and coming back into the USA would mean you had entered the country illegally…..

We also visited the Chisos Basin area of the Park – a really neat area right in the Chisos Mountains. Nice campground and excellent walks heading out into the Mountains. We hiked a long loop up and around Emory Peak, the highest peak in the Park, with great views from the South Rim. We also hiked the Window Trail and part of the Lost Mine Trail.

After 3 nights in Chisos Basin, we moved over to the Cottonwood Campground, further west and also along the Rio Grande. There was a short hike there into Santa Elena Canyon, through which the River flows. This campground was much smaller and very quiet.

As we left the next day, we hiked part of the Mule Spring Trail in the early morning. It was an excellent temperature for a morning desert walk.

In general, Big Bend was an interesting place, especially the Chisos Basin area and the road down to the Cottonwoods area. One note: Park visitors can only stay 14 days at a time and 28 days maximum in one year. We also understand that only about 200,000 people visit this park each year, making it the least visited park in the USA National Park system.