March 23-26 - Big Bend National Park

Well again I am 3 months behind on posting so I will attempt to catch up again. On Wednesday, March 23 we drove from Alpine, Texas south into Big Bend National Park. It is a large park. We stopped at the entry visitor center to find out as much information as we could about the park. We bought some meat and buns for sandwiches at Rio Grande Village and then drove east to Boquilla Canyon Overlook and then on to the end of the road where we took a hike over the hill and down to the edge of the Rio Grande River toward Boquilla Canyon.








We got to hear “Victor” singing. He sits across the river and sings. One of his friends leaves a jar along the path for donations. There were also crafted items left in a few places that were available for purchase.

It was very hot and of course there is no shade. We also learned that usually this time of year there are blossoms all over but because they haven’t had rain since August there were no blooms at all. These were all we saw.



We stayed 3 nights at the Chisos Mountain Lodge in the park. It was located up in a mountain basin and the weather was a little cooler.



We went to a ranger program entitled “Some Endangered Evening”. He talked about the impact of man and our ability to see the stars. We also got to see a havelina.


Thursday we went to an area called Dugout Wells for a ranger guided walk on “The Big Bend Pharmacy”. It was very interesting to find out about all of the ways the plants in the desert could be used. We drove out of the west side of the park to the town of Study Butte/Terlingua. It was a very small town. In the evening we walked the window loop trail close to our cabin. There is a “window” in the mountain ridge

and we watched the sunset from there. We enjoyed viewing the mountains around our cabin.



Friday morning we went to a ranger talk about the lions and bears in the park. We then drove to the last area of the park (southwest) called Castolon.

This was at a viewpoint and was called Mule Ear because of the rock formation.

We ate our lunch at a picnic table along the Rio Grande where the canoes come out of the water after going through the Santa Elena Canyon.

It was a beautiful spot. I think the most surprising thing was the smallness of the river. I think I just expected something a lot wider. We went to another ranger talk in the evening about mining in Big Bend form 1916-1920.