Friday, January 27, 2017: Big Bend Day 2

  Woke to a beautiful sunrise and temps in the mid 30's.  Brrrrr.  No electric here and cannot use my generator.  Started up the propane furnace and ever since I filled the propane tank a few days ago, the furnace has trouble igniting.  It ran three times, and each time the blower runs quite a while, sucking juice from the batteries, but no heat.  So, decided to pack up and drive to a parking area near the lodge where I could run the generator to replenish the batteries and run my electric space heater.  Hmmm, no good spots near the lodge where I would not disturb folks, so headed back up and out of the basin area and found a roadside pullout.  By then, the engine heater had warmed the front quite a bit and I found that while I was driving, the furnace finally kicked in.  Toasty, now - have I mentioned how much I hate the cold?

Dressed and had breakfast and then continued my Big Bend Park tour by heading to the east side of the park, about 25 miles.  This is a huge park, roughly 100x100 miles.

Stopped at a desert "oasis" where in the middle of just creosote bushes and cacti, trees grew due to an underground spring.  This had been the site of a ranch that is gone now.  Nearby in the desert, they had a short walk identifying all the different cacti - so photos of flora!

I continued my drive east towards the Rio Grande, enjoying the scenery, and a cute coyote who seemed as interested in me as I was in him!

I did a  hike to Boquillas Canyon, but the path was blocked right before the entrance - it was a pretty walk along the river.

Decided to head out of the park instead of staying at the campground in the Rio Grande Village.  I had hoped the campsites would be on the river, but you couldn't even see it from the campground.

Drove due north to Marathon, Texas and then headed east on route 90 to a small town, Sanderson where I got a decent campsite with full hookups.  Calling for a snow shower tonight, but sunny and cold (32) in the morning.

Thursday, January 26. 2017: Big Bend Day 1

Left my full service campground resort in Lajitas, Texas and drove northeast to Big Bend National Park.

After entering the west entrance to the park, I immediately drove the Ross-Maxwell Scenic Drive and wow, was it ever!  The 30 mile drive took me 3 hours with stops for photos and a few short 1-mile hikes.  Lots of interesting geology, cactus, dry waterfalls, Rio Grande River and history of early ranchers, eeking out a living.

Pretty part of a short walk to an old ranch

This windmill from the old ranch is still pumping water!

1 Mile Hike to see this dry waterfall.  The water careened off the top of the mesa and created this slot in the rocks with swirl caverns at the bottom

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Mules Ears formation

Tuff Canyon

Cerro Castellan

Raft/canoe launch for the Rio Grande 

 

Around 2 pm, I checked with a campground on the scenic drive and he said they were filling fast and that the campground in the mountains still had spots.  So, I drove to the Chisos Basin an hour east through the desert and climbed to over 5,000' to mountains with evergreen trees (something not often seen in Texas).  The campground is in a basin surrounded by mountains and the drive down into the basin had quite a few 10 mph hairpin turns downhill at a 15% grade.  I got the second to the last spot - lucky!  No hookups and no generators allowed, so it will be an early night and expecting a cold morning.

From my campsite in Chisos Basin at sunset

A Fabulous day.

Wednesday, January 25, 2016: Catchup! Quartzsite, then heading East

Lots to catch up on.  I arrived at Quartzsite on Thursday and left Monday morning.  Had a great time visiting with folks I had met previously online, so it was nice to put faces to names.  Also met lots of new fellow travelers and traded stories about our RVs and our travel experiences.  Unfortunately, the weather was always windy, which made the cool, cloudy days really nasty, so socializing was way less than normal.  Quartzsite hosts two famous shows - an RV show that is the biggest flea market for RVers and rock, mineral and gem shows, plus a general flea market that runs all of January and February for the snowbirds that frequent the area. I went to the flea market on Friday and walked miles to see all the booths, but did not buy a thing.  On Saturday, I went to the opening day of the RV show and it was so packed, i stood in place for minutes at a time, waiting for the crowd to move.  Crazy!!!  Definitely a major happening.  I got a great deal on replacing our awnings and picked up LED lights for the RV.

Cloudy weather on Thursday and Friday at least gave us a pretty rainbow

The Winnebago View/Navions  gathered together as the weather started to clear Friday night.  The flags at friends RV shows how hard the wind was blowing

Sunny Saturday and the wood pile ready for our bonfire tonight

Looking north from atop my RV to the next section of RVs.  The RV show tent 1/2 mile away can be sen in upper left

Not everyone was gathered around the campfire site - many spread out around the periphery

The campfire ready to light and the woodpile stash

The crew gathering for the potluck dinner and the later bonfire

Sundown and the bonfire

After thoroughly enjoying the experience of the Quartzsite "happening," I left Monday morning to return east on I-10 and decided to put in a couple of long days of driving to get out of Arizona, New Mexico and west Texas to get to Big Bend National Park, my next major stop.

Beginning of a beautiful sunset at my campground southeast of El Paso, Texas

The finale of the sunset

Today, Wednesday, I headed south off route 10, enjoying a few sights along the way.

A Prada Store (super high end designer boutique) in the middle of completely nowhere, southeast Texas.  It is not open for business.

Saw this and asked Siri what it was - she said a tethered radar system.  Hmmm.

When I reached Presidio, Texas I followed the scenic road, El Camino del Rio, southeast along the Rio Grande river.  This road passes through canyons and climbs mountains - considered the most beautiful drive in Texas, and I agree.

Rio Grande

This area has some hoodoos - odd sculptures from eroded rocks

I took one short hike into a slot canyon - just beautiful.

The white on the edges is white rock (from volcanic ash ages ago) and the dark patches on the ground are pebbles from flash floods that would be puddles after a rainstorm

Picnic area with teepees for shade towards the east end of the El Camino del Rio

I stopped tonight in Lajitas, Texas, along the Rio Grande and tomorrow I will head a bit northeast to Big Bend National Park.  This town was first established by the Army as a fort to protect settlers from Pancho Villa.