2/6 and 2/7 - Big Bend National Park, Texas

We're staying at a campground in Terlingua, TX, near Big Bend National Park.  It's in the Chihuahuan Desert, one of the four major deserts in the U.S.  It's all dirt and rocks, no grass, which is causing great confusion for Lovie.  She keeps looking for grass clumps to pee on. 

Today we went into Big Bend National Park.  It's a remote and rugged place with fascinating mountains and rocks.  The Chisos Mountains (the only range in the U.S. completely contained within a national park) were formed by volcanic eruptions between 40 million and 18 million years ago.

Balanced Rock on Grapevine Hills Trail.

Grapevine HIlls Trail.

The mountains are in every stage of erosion now which is most interesting to see.  Many of the mountains are spitting out boulders as they disintegrate.  Grapevine Hills Trail is a good example of this.  We hiked the trail but didn't figure out why it was named Grapevine Hills.  Bet there isn't a grape growing for 1000 miles.  Maybe someone thought the boulders looked like rocks?

Tunnel on the road to Rio Grande Village with the Sierra del Carmen Mountains in the background.  They're on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.

Sierra del Carmen Mountains from the Rio Grande Village amphitheater picnic area. We've seen pictures of these mountains at sunset and they're really spectacular.  Unfortunately, we couldn't get there at the right time of day.

Mouth of Boquillas Canyon.

The park has a great range of elevations. Terlingua, just outside the park to the west, is around 3000 ft.  We went down to the east end of the park yesterday (1800 ft elevation) to Rio Grande Village (no village, just one tiny store and a campground).  Hiked to the mouth of Boquillas Canyon which is one of three gigantic canyons the Rio Grande River has carved along its route between Mexico and the U.S.  Pictures cannot come close to conveying the true feel of the place and how high the walls are (around 1500').  

There were a few Mexicans plying their crafts and one singing on the Mexican side with his donation jar on the U.S. side.  The people are very poor because there's no way to earn a reasonable living on their side of the river. 

Chisos Mountains and Casa Grande from Basin Road.

Driving out of Chisos Basin.

Chisos Mountains....Vernon Bailey Peak, the Window and Emery Peak.

Casa Grande in the Chisos Mountains.

Chisos Basin.....the Window (the "V" notch).

Today we went up into the Chisos Mountains (elevation around 5000' in the basin, 7832' at the highest point).  There were cyclists all over the place, many struggling up the 7 mile climb to the top.  Fortunately we didn't get stuck behind any of them.  There's a very different ecosystem in the Chisos because of the elevation and more moisture.  It's populated by plant and animal species that got trapped there 8000 years ago after the last ice age when the lower elevations got increasingly hotter.  They can't tolerate the heat so cannot move away from that location.

We'll be here until Tuesday when we move 100 miles north to Fort Davis. We've had no TV since getting here on whatever day it was......I don't even know when we got here.  This place is so remote we can't pick up anything by antenna and there's no cable in the campground (just at the adjacent motel).  It is actually very refreshing not to be able to see the news.  Don't want to know what's going on and don't care.  :))  This is the furthest away from civilization we've ever been other than being in the middle of the ocean a few decades ago.  We do have wifi though so we're not completely out of it, not that I've even bothered to look at the news.  This is a great place to truly disconnect from everything.