HOT Texas and Big Bend National Park: June 30 – July 4, 2018

Saturday: Del Rio, Texas

Del Rio is a major town in this area and we were able to do some grocery shopping, get fuel and propane before we head south to Big Bend.

We continued west on US90 stopping at the Amistad Reservoir Recreation Area Visitor Center to watch to movie about the joint Mexico/US reservoir and its history.

Pecos River

 Another half hour west, we stopped at the Pecos River Overlook for lunch and some views of the Pecos River. A bit further on in Langtry, we stopped at Judge Roy Beans saloon/courthouse to find out more about the “Law West of the Pecos” - the “Hanging Judge.” Apparently, he preferred stiff fines that he pocketed to actually hangings and he owned only one law book that he seldom referenced, but he did manage to clean up the lawlessness that existed in some of the nearby railroad tent towns that sprung up to house the workers on the new railroad.

Pecos River

Judge Roy Beans' "Jersey Lilly" Saloon and Court was often held on the porch

Sidling up to Judge Roy Bean's Bar

Ornate feet from the original pool table in the Jersey Lilly

There is no place in the USA that has local pride like Texas - their flag and the Texas Star are everywhere! 

I drove the rest of the afternoon through Texas scrub land mostly mesquite and creosote – and as I approached the town of Marathon, we began seeing some greening of the land and a few cattle and goats. 

 We were thankful to be here as it is a much higher elevation (4,000') and the temps were only in the 80's a welcome relief from the 104 degrees back in Del Rio. Marathon has some of the darkest skies in the U.S., and we sat outside and watched the stars – beautiful!

Marathon Campground

Sunday: Marathon, Texas

Sunrise in Marathon Campground

When having my coffee outside, I noticed that our back tire was super soft-almost flat. After checking, found that both dual tires were the same. Huh??? Called our Good Sam roadside assistance and they informed us that they cannot send someone to check the tires, but only send a guy to either change the valve stems or install new tires (all parts and labor at our expense). OK, so tires only have 25k miles on them and we do not have extender valve stems that can cause problems, so hesitant to “order” new stems or tires. We knew that being it was Sunday, nothing would be resolved, so spent the day doing RV cleaning and maintenance.

Monday: Marathon, Texas

Had multiple conversations with our Roadside assistance before finding out another option (that they do not recommend) is to have someone come out and fill our tires with air, but they will only fill one tire and we have to pay for the other - duh. OK – that is what we requested and drove the half hour to the nearest large town (Alpine) to a tire dealer. They diagnosed the problems – a hole in one tire which they repaired and the other had the valve stem broken – replaced that. We also found we had a lot of oily residue on the hubcap and so they repaired an axle seal. Very reasonable – and we will be looking for a new Roadside Assistance company. We did some shopping, had lunch, and decided to just stay in Alpine for the night.

Tuesday: Alpine, Texas

Bummer, outer dual tire is low again. Back to our friends at the tire shop and they determined that we had a cracked rim! So, they put on the spare (for free!) and we were on our way. Finally, on to Big Bend National Park. 

We drove south an hour and a half, through some small towns - mostly spread out campers stuck under aluminum sheds.

We stopped at the Visitor Center to watch a movie about the Park and then drove half hour to the Chisos Mountain Basin area to get a campsite. It is above 5,000' feet here and the top temps are in the 80's and forecast to be high 60's at night- perfect! No hookups here, so we took a scenic drive in the afternoon, returned to the Chisos Mountain Lodge for dinner and to our campsite for the night. A gorgeous spot surrounded by rugged peaks.

Despite the mostly arid scrubland, there are occasional bursts of pretty color

"Mules Ears"

From our campground in Chisos Mountains Basin, looking out the "window" at the plains

Signs around the campground

Bear Boxes

Wednesday: Big Bend National Park

Happy 4th of July !!!!

Case Grande Peak

Looking for shade near the Rio Grande

The mules should have been here in the Rio Grande to keep cool!  Mexican washing his horse

Rio Grande looking west

Drove to the eastern part of the park to see the Rio Grande – if we had been here for the weekend, we could have taken a quick rowboat ride across the river to Mexico for lunch at a Cantina, but unfortunately, the summertime is the slow time here and they only do the crossings on weekends. It is over 100 degrees down by the river. The river is muddy and and can be waded across in many spots. We enjoyed watching some folks give their horse a bath. Stopped for lunch and then drove west through a scenic drive with volcanic rocks, jagged peaks and unusual rock formations back down to the Rio Grande where we saw cattle grazing. The River has carved huge 1500' canyons through the rock – a beautiful area. I decided to take shortcut back to the main road that the Park Ranger said had some washboard, but fully passable by our vehicle. Ahem. Some washboard turned out to be 10 miles of washboard, and couldn't go faster than 10 mph. That means by shortcut to save us 45 miles took more than almost two hours to traverse, but we did see some beautiful scenery and a few roadrunners. 

Rio Grande is Western Part of Park.  Right side is USA

St. Elena Canyon - in high water months can take multi-day raft trips through 1500' walled canyon

Out of the park, we stopped at Lajitas, Texas on the Rio Grande for a site at an RV Campground Resort – absolutely essential we have electric as the temp is 106 degrees! I had stayed here a year ago January, and they no longer accepted our discount RV campground pass and had to pay $45, but it is the only game in town and we had to have electricity for the AC.

Heading to higher ground and more reasonable temperatures tomorrow.

Sunday, January 29, 2017: Sanderson to San Antonio, Texas

Today was a driving day and while enduring mind-numbing dry desert landscapes, I reflected back on Big Bend, it's name coming from the big 90 degree bend that the Rio Grande makes here.  I think the biggest surprise for me was that the Rio Grande was not a large, muddy meandering river, nor was it the small stream that you would sometimes see in the old westerns as they galloped their horses through the river and across the border.



It has always been a powerful river, cutting 1,000 foot deep canyons into the rock and the and the swirling rapids in the narrowed canyons prevented its navigation until (I think) the late 1800's.

Today's Rio Grande current can be deadly, even where it looks calm.  But, the river is much smaller because so much water is removed for irrigation.  Where the river had been wide, muddy and meandering, it is now often broken into a smallish main channel and even smaller side channels.  When it does flood, however, it covers vast areas because except for the rocky canyons, the surrounding landscape is so flat.

Float trips can be done through the canyons, but it is at least a full day trip.  They say the river carries so much sand that on a float trip you can actually hear it grinding away under the raft.  Another item for the bucket list.

Back to driving..... I followed US Route 90 east across south Texas.  On my approaching Big Bend on I-10 and Route 90 as well as leaving and driving Route 90 east, I encountered four border patrol stops where they had dogs and could (but didn't) inspect every vehicle.  But every vehicle was stopped and driver questioned.  I did see some vehicles that were being searched.  I also passed dozens and dozens of border patrol SUVs patrolling along the fenced ranchlands between the highway and the border.

Once I got to Del Rio - a nice little city, the landscape began to change from the dry desert to irrigated plowed fields.  More towns, closer together and lots of green stuff - grass, trees, and in general, much more to see and enjoy.  Just before Del Rio, I crossed the Pecos River and stopped by the overlook to get some photos.  There is a major reservoir in the area called Amistad that is a joint damming project of Mexico and the USA.  After being in the desert so long, it was wonderful to see a large body of water!

Pecos River

Stopped for the night just outside San Antonio.  I have been to the Alamo a few times as well as the Riverwalk, so will not be making any stops here, but continuing east, but now back on I-10.