We're Almost Caught Up on Our Trip!

We left Ft. Davis and headed for Big Bend National Park. First we stopped in Alpine, Texas to fill our propane and gas tanks. We also picked up a few groceries as Big Bend is in a remote area with no towns nearby.

From Alpine we drove to Marathon, Texas so we could enter Big Bend at the Persimmon Gap visitor center. That is the main road into the center of the park. There were two campgrounds we could fit into and they were at the far edges of the park. We chose Rio Grande Village for this visit. Neither campground had hook-ups and neither had shower facilities.

We passed through this tunnel to get to our campground.

Our first day at Big Bend was extremely windy and cool so we decided to drive through the park to familiarize ourselves with trails and different programs available to us. We stopped at Boquillas Overlook to view the Rio Grande.

We drove east to west through the park and ended up at Terlingua, Texas. It is supposed to be a ghost town as well as the place where the annual chili cook-off is held. There were more houses and stores than one would expect at a ghost town.

From Terlingua we went back into the park and traveled to Castolon Visitor Center. From there we took a look at Cottonwood Campground and were glad we chose Rio Grande Village as our base.

From Cottonwood Campground we traveled west to Santa Elena Canyon.

From there we took the Old Maverick Road back to the Maverick Junction entrance.

Yes, it is considered an improved dirt road! It had less twists and turns than the road we drove along to the Castolon Visitor Center.

Our next stop was the Chisos Basin where the lodge is located. We arrived there at 4:00--30 minutes after the visitor center closed.

We returned to our campground and planned the rest of our stay.

For our second day in the park we chose to hike Hot Springs Historic Trail. The trail starts at the remains of an old village. This building was the general store.
Along the trail we were surprised to turn a corner and see these gorgeous yellow flowers growing out of the cliff just below prickly pear cactus.

At one time the hot springs was a health resort and spa. All that is left is the foundation where the hot springs continue to flow into the Rio Grande. And yes, the water is very warm--105 degrees!
As we walked back to the trailhead, someone pointed out the bird nests that we missed. They are made of mud and are just beneath an overhanging rock. We didn't see the birds that made them, but we could hear them.
Then we saw another bird nest, this one in cholla. The bird in this nest is protected by the sharp spines of the cactus.

Our next stop was Grapevine Hills Trail. It was 6 miles down one of those improved dirt roads. We took our picnic lunch to eat at the end of the trail, beneath the balanced rock. You may have noticed that there are not many pictures of us together. Well, at Hot Springs our tripod said it had had enough and fell apart. We couldn't find all the pieces. This picture was taken with the camera on a rock.

This trail is easy until the last quarter mile which is basically scampering up rocks.
It was well worth the trip as the view was great!
After hiking the two trails, we headed back to the campground. We wanted to be sure to get the the visitor center that night for the ranger's astronomy talk. The night was warm and cloudless. Big Bend is the national park with the darkest night skies. The number of stars we could see was amazing. I am now able to identify more constellations than ever before.