VERY ROUGH ROAD LED TO BEAUTIFUL BALANCE ROCK

Tuesday, February 6 – Our first stop this morning in Big Bend National Park was the Panther Junction Visitor Center. We watched the introductory movie to Big Bend which was about 20 minutes long and was quite good. This Park is so big we have to divide it into various areas to make since of it all, and then do some serious planning so we can see the park by sections. It takes more than 90 minutes to drive across the park so we don't want to be driving back and forth. Also, there are only two gas stations in the Park, so we better keep an eye on the gas gauge and conserve when possible.

Big Bend spans 801,163 acres, which is about 1,252 sq. miles. It is the 15th largest unit in the National Park System. There are four campgrounds in the Park but only one with FHUs. There is the Chisos Mountains Lodge and Restaurant along with three camp  stores.

After watching the movie, we traveled about ten miles to Grapevine Hills Road, an improved back road (bumpy dirt and gravel), which we crawled down for 7.7 miles to the Balance Rock Trail.

This is a 2.2 mile trail through a beautiful bolder and rock area. We had to do some scrambling up a rocky trail on the side of a mountain for about a quarter mile until we reached Balance Rock. Not only is the Balance Rock amazing, but the view of the surrounding area is spectacular. Do not miss this hike! It is rated easy…pretty good description.

The trail.

Lots of beauty all around.

At the top.

From the other side.

The rock formation is super.

Beauty at the top.

After returning to the truck, we crawled back Grapevine Hills Road to the main road. Our next destination was Hot Springs. This is a natural heated spring that empties into a pool enclosure adjacent to the Rio Grande River. Another improved(?) road...but much better than Grapevine.  We couldn’t drive all the way back.

We hiked.

This little guy was a hoot….the Roadrunner.

Historical buildings from the past. The old store.

Lodging for the people and animals.

Everyone has read or heard how the Mexicans come across the river to sell their wares. If it is illegal to buy them in the Park, we have no idea why they allow the Mexicans to even bring the items across and set up a mini-sales booth. Good question for us to ask one of the volunteers.



Anyone can get in the heated pool and slip right into the River to cool off. We didn't get to enjoy the water this time. Kids were stirring up the mud, and it was way too crowded for our enjoyment. The water was really warm.

That is Mexico across the water on the left.

We got to see more pictographs.

We aren’t sure, but all along the water grew what we think is bamboo.

After both hikes, we were needing some nourishment.

We then returned to the RV to sit outside and relax in the 85 degree weather. We are amazed at how warm and sunny our time along the Rio Grande River has been. We enjoyed talking to the neighbors for awhile before getting a bite to eat for dinner and then heading out for one final adventure for the day.

We drove over to the other campground here at Rio Grande Village. It is much bigger than the area we are in but does not have hookups. Campers are only permitted to use a generator in certain areas, as well. At the back of the campground is a nature trail that leads to an elevated viewing area that is great for watching the sunset. Unfortunately, it was cloudy tonight so we'll have to return another night.

That's was enough for a day. We have much more exploring to do so stop back!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

ADVENTURES AWAIT US AT BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK

Monday, February 5 – We traveled Southwest on US-90 to Marathon, TX, where we stopped to fill up with diesel fuel at $3.45/gallon. We filled up in Del Rio yesterday at $2.65. Quite a difference! We then turned South on TX-385 to Big Bend National Park. The drive was a pleasure on US-90 which we recommend as an alternative to I-10 when crossing Texas. We arrived at Big Bend National Park after a nice uneventful drive.

This tunnel in the park is a lot higher than it looks.

We used our America the Beautiful Senior Pass to waive the $25 admission price, but the campground did NOT give any discount on camping.

We are in the Rio Grande RV Campground with full hook-ups. It is just a blacktop parking lot and not very roomy at that. The area that is intended to be the road between the two rows of back-in camp sites is very narrow and made it difficult to back into our site. The sites are about 30 feet wide with parking for your vehicle next to your RV. That makes it nice that we are not right next to our neighbor's RV. The utilities are at the rear of each site with 50 AMP electric, water, and sewer. We had a clear shot at the Southern sky for our satellite TV.

Looking right.

Looking left.

There is WiFi at the nearby camp store. It isn’t the strongest WIFI we have ever used, but we can at least text with the kids. Since we are in Site #24, the second site from the camp store, we are able to pick it up from our RV. No one is in Site #25. We are hoping, if and when they arrive, they don't block our ability to get WiFi. There is a nice grassy area between the first campsite and the store. There is no cell phone service unless we go to Panther Junction Visitor Center, 20 miles away. We were able to make a phone call to Marsha’s 90-year-old father, who has had the flu for a week…and yes, he did get the flu shot. This is only the third time in nine years of RVing that we were unable to pick-up Verizon cell phone service.

After getting setup in our site, we went up to the camp store to do a couple loads of laundry. We sat out on the provided picnic tables, where many visitors were sitting to use the free WiFi, and chatted with several couples about the Big Bend area and other RV travels.

We have tons of things to do and places to see while in Big Bend so stop back and enjoy the visit with us.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY AT SEMINOLE CANYON

Sunday, February 4 – We got an early start this morning by heading up to the Visitor Center to get a picture of the sunrise at the Maker of Peace, a sculpture as a monumental tribute to the Desert Archaic people, whose pictographs adorn the canyon walls. It was a little chilly at 42 degrees, and we weren't dressed warm enough to stand out too long waiting for the perfect shot. We got our photo and returned quickly to the RV to warm up.

After letting things warm up a bit, we headed out to ride our bikes on the Rio Grande trail. Our goal was the Panther Cave Pictograph site. The trail is about four miles out to an area near where the Seminole Canyon meets the Rio Grande River.

Parts of the trail is very easy for biking.

Some a bit more challenging.

An immense pictograph panel spans the back wall of the rock shelter that's visible across the canyon and includes a panther image nine feet long. The pictographs are on the other side of the canyon and binoculars are nice to have in order to see them up close. For a fee, we could have taken a boat ride for an up-close-and-personal look at the pictographs.

We were lucky enough to see the boat just leaving the Panther Cave dock.

Panther Cave.

We spent 1½ hours at Panther Cave Site climbing among the rocks and along the canyon edge taking pictures and viewing the pictographs. It was a very enjoyable time! Riding the bike to this location was a plus, especially because it was getting warm. The temperature reached 85 degrees this afternoon! We never expected “beach” weather when we planned this Southwest Texas trip for early February.

With the zoom lens on our simple Sony camera, we were able to see pretty clearly the pictographs about 1,000 feet across the water. Amazing!

The panther is about 9 feet long.


Other pictographs.


Paul walking along the ledge. In the background is the canyon water merging into the Rio Grande River.

We then locked are bikes together and hiked out to the point where the canyon meets the Rio Grande River. This is the US/Mexico international border. The area is now the Amistad International Reservoir, a joint venture between Mexico and the United States to control flooding on the Rio Grande. We sat on a couple nice size rocks to enjoy the beautiful scenery and had a snack and a little water before heading back.

The trip back was a breeze on our bikes. We did notice that we had a gradual uphill route, but we made it without a problem. Sure glad we chose the bike option today! The view of the surrounding grasslands and distance mountains was spectacular! It was also nice that we had only seen one other person for about one minute on the entire adventure. What a great day!

 

We then returned to the RV and enjoyed the awesome weather for the remainder of the day. Paul did pack away a few things. Tomorrow we head further Southwest to Big Bend National Park. Again, we will be way out in the wilds West of the Pecos River. We are told that we will have no cell phone service, and WIFI is sketchy.

Bella enjoyed Seminole as much as we did.

What a hunter…lol

A little reminder to those thinking about spending time in this area. There is absolutely NO CELL PHONE SERVICE. If you need to make a phone call, you must drive about 40 miles to Del Rio, Texas. There is very limited WiFi service near the bathrooms, but if several people are trying to use it you may have problems. The WIFI is only for phone data, you won’t be surfing the Internet on your computer. We hope to stop in Marathon, Texas , to try our Verizon service to make a couple phone calls and upload a post, if possible. We'll need to fill up the truck too, because gas stations are few and far between.

This area is a spectacular area to visit so stop back and enjoy our adventures! A special thanks to Erin and Mui of  Two To Travel’s Phaeton Journeys. They did a great job on their blog of featuring the highlights of the park. We used their recommendations and had a blast.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!