April 9th, 2011 was the day we got married! Now 4 college degrees, 3 apartments, 2 couches (we've only ever had one!), and 1 happy couple we are more in love than when we started! To celebrate we took a 2-night camping trip to Big Bend National Park! I never knew a desert could be so beautiful. This time of year the wildflowers were in full bloom and gorgeous! We camped right along the Rio Grande River, which means yes, you can literally throw a rock and hit Mexico on the the other side (which we did)! We did a lot of hiking, bike riding, enjoyed the flowers, and saw lots of wildlife!
This national park had a lot to offer and was huge! We definitely did not have enough time to do everything that we wanted. We would love to plan a family reunion trip down here sometime. It has everything from small easy hikes, to backpacking, river rafting, four-wheeling, hot springs, bike riding, and fishing and there were actually a bazillion birds to see! While here we saw four different types of snakes, tons of birds, road runners, lots of bunnies, lizards, and javelina's (wild hogs). The javelina's are creepy scary. They usually travel in packs of 10-25 and you have to put your food in storage boxes at the campsites because they like to eat your your food. We could hear them at night in the bushes. It was creepy. They also have bears and mountain lions in Big Bend. I was grateful not to see any of those, but they are really common down there. They have signs posted for certain hikes to help people be aware. But it was so much fun and we are already planing our next trip! Probably a small weekend river float trip will be nice :)
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| We arrived in Big Bend around 9pm on Thursday the 9th. We didn't get to our campsite til about 9:45ish because that is how crazy huge the park is! |
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| Our first hike took us to the outer west end of the park of Santa Elena Canyon where the Rio Grande enters the park. |
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| Something was making these interesting burrows in the sand! |
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| Can you tell which direction the water was flowing over this rock anciently? Can you tell I'm married to a geologist! He shows me lots of cool stuff :) |
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| Beautiful cactus flowers in the canyon! |
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| Looking out of the Santa Elena canyon |
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| Undisturbed raindrops from the previous rainstorm. Colby says these are sometimes preserved in the rock record also. |
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| This snake was crossing the road and we turned around to get a better look! It's called a gopher snake |
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| Tuff Canyon |
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| We rode our bikes a little ways to a trail head because our car doesn't have high clearance..... |
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| But left when we saw this sign because I got too nervous |
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| Then we decided to go fishing because it's free in the park! It was fun just to watch and relax. |
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| Next, we took a small hike to this ridge line next to our camp. Our camp is on the right side of the river. Can you see it? |
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| This bend in the river was beautiful! We were looking on into Mexico! You could see horse trails on the USA side of the river where the Mexican ranchers would cross the river twice, so they didn't have to follow the large bend. |
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| These colorful fish would dig out these little pits. It was interesting. |
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| The next morning, we went on a bike ride around our camp area. We came upon these horses which were grazing. |
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| We saw a trail and stopped to hike up to an overlook and could see our campground again, just from a different perspective! The mountains farthest in the distance are in Mexico. |
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| Riding back to our campsite. |
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| Our next hike takes us to Boquillas Canyon. This is on the east side of the park where the Rio Grande leaves the park. Boquillas Canyon was only about 10 minutes from our campsite! |
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| We can't wait to take a small raft trip through the canyon! |
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| Skipping rocks to Mexico! |
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| There is a small town of about 100 people called Boquillas in Mexico. It is now a port of entry and has been open for about 2 years. This is the trail leading to the river, so we can go to the town! |
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| There were only two choices of where to eat. This place looked and was good! Of course it was over-priced, but it was tasty. Our options were tacos or tamales. We got both. |
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| Our small meal. It was good and neither of us got sick |
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| Miguel is 9 years old and was assigned to be our "tour guide." He stayed with us the whole time and was fun to talk to. |
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| According to Lucia, our cook, about 100 people live in Boquillas. |
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| This is us walking back down to the river to cross back over to the U.S. Can you see the little kids running to Colby. The kids there have been trained to offer any white person a souvenir to buy. |
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| Crossing back over on the Rio Grande. Mexico on the right and USA on the left! |
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| Our next hike took us along the river to some hot-springs! It was awesome and along the way there were Indian Pictographs. |
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| The next time we come we are planning a moonlight soak in the hot-springs! I can already tell that it is going to be wonderful! |
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| Part of the hike opened up to this sandy area. I found this particularly interesting because there was a border patrol on the U.S side talking to some Mexicans on the bank of the Mexico side. The interesting thing is that the border patrol agent looked and sounded Mexican and was talking to his buddies on the other side! It was funny. |
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| This sandy area also had tons of tadpoles everywhere! |
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| Our very last hike took us to the Chisos Basin, which is practically in the center of the park. This trail was called the Lost Mine Trail. At first, I was freaked out because they had all the sings along the trail about bears and mountain lions, but I just carried bear spray in my hand and sang songs really loud (even if I can't sing) , and scared them all off. I may have even scared some other hikers along the way. And at one point we came across this baby rattlesnake! |
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| In our way! So beautiful and we weren't half way yet! |
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| At the top! It wasn't the highest point, but it took us up pretty high to this ridge line with spectacular 360 degree views! Colby getting really close to the edge |
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| This is the 360 degree gorgeous view! Mountains all around! This hike is definitely a must! |
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| Once off the hike we drove down to this campground area. We never got to camp here because it was always too full. But it was beautiful! |
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| Driving away from Chisos Basin. |
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| This is why I like the sun roof! Taking pictures while Colby drives saves time and it's fun! Just glad we didn't get caught ;) |
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| We were sad to go. It was a short 2 days. |
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| Even leaving the park the wildflowers were always there! Can't wait to go back! |
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