BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK - PART I, MARCH 5th to 11th

A National Park Service reports shows that 366,269 visitors in 2010 spent $16,121,000 in Big Bend National Park and in communities near the park. That spending supported 241 jobs in the local area.  In addition, overnight stays in Big Bend were 175,574 for the year.   

It was a nice drive from Fort Davis to the park. Not knowing the campgrounds or where they were, we booked three nights in Rio Grande Village Hook-ups. That would give us time to look around and decide whether to move. We asked for a fourth night when we checked in. The hook-up part of the campground was a disappointment. We knew it wouldn't be particularly nice but we were right next to two rigs with construction workers in them. Noisy, messy and obnoxious litter. But the electricity was great. Two days were in the 80's, but kitties were comfortable. I loved the warm mornings and we took bird walks. I even planned to eat breakfast at my picnic table in the mornings. 

Here it is. Judy is the rightmost camper. We are third from the other end of the same row.

First thing is usually a trip to the Visitor's Center. It's twenty miles from the Village. 

Big Bend Bluebonnets

Here is the entire park. It's huge! Big Bend refers to the great southwest Texas U-turn the Rio Grande makes - defining the park boundary for 118 miles. By the time the river reaches the park,  most of the water in it comes from the Rio Conchos in Mexico. Its 800,000+ acres are approximately the size of the KIng Ranch and larger than Rhode Island. There are 200 miles of dirt roads and 200 miles of trails. We only had a week to explore it!

The Sierra Del Carmens, the eastern park boundary.

Of the ranger programs we went to, this was one of our favorites. Heather used skulls to lead us to analyze animals' lives. We looked at hearing, sight, diet and smell using skull characteristics.

One of the trails we walked was the hot springs. Read the warning.

The old general store at the hot springs.

We realized the best camping for us was in Rio Grande Village - but not in the hook-ups. If we were going to get a site in the NP campground, we needed to beat the Spring Break folks. So we stressed about what sites we could fit and where we wanted to be. It got obsessive! I cancelled the extra night in hook-ups so we could get a site Thursday. Then I scheduled a Jeep Tour for Wednesday afternoon (separate chapter) and worried about the cats in the heat. We real quick got our dry camping site in the morning. Then I asked for the extra night again. I planned to leave the rig in it for the afternoon with the A/C on then go to our new site for the night. As it turned out, it was $33 poorly spent. A front came in and there was no need for A/C - just heat! We did move the camper into our new site and hoped we didn't have a tree limb land on us in the night. We slept like rocks after the exhausting day - rocked in our 'cradle'.

We had a wonderful site, filled with birds. A Roadrunner in a tree struck us as unusual. We had both Northern Cardinal and Pyrrhuloxia but I never did learn to distinguish their songs. 

Golden-fronted Woodpeckers are everywhere

Hundreds of campsites, all taken. We did well getting our nice site when we did. Funny thing bout Spring Break in Big Bend, people were well behaved and considerate. The college kids we saw were on field study trips. There was no noisy partying.

Everything in the park is close to Mexico. There used to be one of the small, informal border crossings here but after 9/11 they were all closed.

Spring Break kids with instructor. Likely customers?

These two just crossed the river anyway. This is why there are warning signs about buying goods from Mexican Nationals.

Their faces are hidden. Carole swears there's a leafy, green substance in the sacks.

What's left of the town across the river. With no legitimate trade, it has shrunk to a tenth of its former population.