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!

EXPORING MORE OF SEMINOLE CANYON STATE PARK

Friday, February 2 – We've experienced great weather here at Seminole Canyon State Park on the Mexico border in Southern Texas. Day highs have been in the upper 70's with nightly lows in the 40's. Great weather for the many outdoor activities available here in the park. We certainly hope this weather continues for our visit to Big Bend National Park.

We started the day’s adventure at the Visitor Center to see the introductory movie which we missed on our first day here. It is a nice overview of the history behind Seminole Canyon and the native Americans that inhabited this area 4,000-12,000 years ago. Seminole Canyon received its name in honor of the U.S. Army’s Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts, garrisoned at Fort Clark. The scouts protected the West Texas frontier from marauding Apache and Comanche bands between 1872-1941. No scout was ever wounded or killed in combat.

We then walked through the small but very well done museum included as part of the Visitor Center. It included artifacts and displays of not only the first people that passed through this area in search of food but a very well-done history of the significant impact the railroad had in the late 19^th century. We certainly recommended this museum to all passing through the area.

Two items in upper-left corner are shoes, other items are pieces of mats.

A scene from the rock shelter.

An excellent job explaining how the railroad was built through this area.

We then exited the Visitor Center through the rear door and took the Fate Bell Shelter Trail for 1/3 or a mile to the Windmill Nature Trail. This is a short trail of about a mile that skirts along the rim of the canyon to an old windmill used to pump water during the time the railroad was being built. Many of the plants along the trail are identified by small signs at their base. We really enjoyed reading and identifying the many plants growing in this dry rocky environment.

 A bit of a rocky trail.

Pretty scenery.

What is left of the windmill.

Narrow leaf Yucca.

Agave.

Sotol.

Cenizo.

Huisache tree (We Sach tree)

We had a nice surprise while on the trail. As we approached a group of trees, two very large deer ran out and up the rocky hill across from us. Marsha quickly turned the camera on and was able to get a snapshot of one of the beauties.

Earlier in the day, we actually looked out our back window and saw several deer playing about 500 feet from our backyard.

We returned to the Visitor Center via a short walk on the park road from the end of the Windmill Trail. We jumped in the truck and headed a couple miles west to the Pecos River High Bridge viewing area. This is really something to see! The river gorge was a huge barrier to anyone or anything wishing to continue moving West. Not only is it a pretty significant sized river, but it is nearly impossible to reach the river's edge because of the deep canyon it is in. The Pecos River is considered the beginning of the famous “Wild West.” Of course, this was a tremendous roadblock to the railroad as it was heading West. If traveling along US-90, be sure to pull over to the Pecos Viewing area to see this amazing river gorge.

Can you see how the river has gone dry?

We have another adventure planned for tomorrow, so stop back and and see what we get into.

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