Our first adventure with the new Kayak on the Rio Grande!

Friends Erica and Rudy were camping here in their RV for a few days and gave Lupe a kayak so he could try it out.  Here is the whole photo Album of the adventure with the new Kayak on the Rio Grande!

Excited to get started

Stuck in the mud

Our first off-road trip down Glen Springs Road in Big Bend National Park

We took our first off-road trip here at Big Bend in May 2018.  We'd been here for a month and needed to get off-road and see how the Green Monster, our RAM 1500, would do on the seasonally-maintained back roads of Big Bend National Park.  Our plan was to get off-road as much as possible during our 6-month stay.  So, off we went.

Off-roading is a big deal here with hundreds of miles of roads available for high-clearance and 4-wheel drive vehicles.  The Green Monster is high-clearance but not 4-wheel drive.

As we learned over time, much of Big Bend National park is only viewable from these roads. For example, River Road (East and West) follows the Rio Grande for 50 miles.  At its midpoint, near Tally, it gets you to the third big canyon here in the park, Mariscal Canyon, which is only accessible off-road! And exploring Glen springs now would make it possible to hike Pine Canyon later in our stay.

We started down Glen Springs Road about 7 miles from Panther Junction Visitors Center and then took River Road East to get back to Rio Grande Village (RGV) and the main park road 118.  Glen Springs road is 15.8 miles and the section of River Road we took was 8 miles, for a total of 23.8 miles.

What we found was that Glen Springs Road was relatively easy to drive and flat most of the way.  There always seem to be a few sections of back-roads that are particularly bad. Some examples we've found are washed out (river washes) that drop 1 to 2 feet when you enter them, 30 - 45 degree angled sections that really require 4-wheel drive to climb over and out of, extremely rocky or large rock areas that require that you go very slow or knock out a CV joint, stabilizer or step on the truck, and areas that have not been cleared from brush and scratch both sides of the vehicle.

But Glen Springs did not present problems like this and we feel, for our first off-road trip, that we've conquered a new way to explore the park.

Here are our conquering photos - don't laugh!









As we moved on down the Glen Springs road we did actually find the lush, desert springs down a rather challenging road, which we walked since there was no apparent turnaround.

The spring area was covered by a large multi-trunked Cottonwood tree, probably the largest I've ever seen.   As we approach, it got larger and larger.  You could see this tree from miles away. 

As we've experienced in many areas of Big Bend, as you approach there is just quiet.  The birds are silent waiting to see who the new intruder is, and there is just the sound of the breeze passing through the cottonwood leaves.  It's a moment you treasure each time and you sit for a moment and close your eyes and listen.

large multi-branched Cottonwood tree at Glen Springs

It seems over time the tree had started to lay down, creating even more cover for desert wildlife to take shelter and escape the desert heat.  Large trees create their own ecosystem, and this one definitely had its own with moist areas below, lots of low, protective limbs and towering branches two stories high.

The spring continued to travel in many directions away from the treed-canopy, one flowed into the small canyon just off the road.

We enjoyed the wondrous space mother nature had created at the spring and then moved on down the road to find canyons carved into the land were thousands of years of rainfall forced its way through the desert. The carved canyons presented colorful layers of rock and sediment left from the ocean that once covered this area 90 million years ago.

Stopping for a final view of the lush area and canyons that seem to go on forever our breath was taken away with the Chisos looming miles away.

We then turned left on River Road East, heading back toward civilization and RGV, with the amazing peaks of the Sierra del Carmen mountains in Mexico directly ahead of us.  It was an exciting and memorable first off-road trip for us.  Here's our album with all photos from the Glen Springs trip.

Related articles!

Check out the Blog post on our 2018 Pine Canyon Hike at Big Bend National Park!

Roadrunner!

When we first got to Big Bend we were so exited to see the roadrunners all over the place. Now we don't go more than a day without seeing one.

I (Lupe) came home for lunch as I do most days. When I was heading out to go back to work I stopped in my tracks when I saw this roadrunner on the truck.

I thought he was going to run off but he did not.

Turns out he wanted to get in the truck with me to go to work. 

He struggled to get in but could not make it in.

He was not happy when I jumped in the car and did not let him in.

They look cute but every time I see one it reminds me of this scene from Jurassic Park: Lost World.

"If you don't know what happens you need to watch the movie."

Our First 2018 hike in the Chisos, the Lost Mine Trail

Our first hike in the Chisos Mountains during our 2018 stay at Big Bend happened during the two days we were camping at the Basin Campground.  We knew we wanted to hike while up there but weren't sure which one we had time for.  

We did the Windows Trail and (secret) Falls trail in 2014 but never got to the Lost Mine trail.  Lost mine is known for having incredible views of the Chisos most of the way up and that was absolutely true!  The hike took about 3 hours and we ascended about 1800 feet to about 6800 feet in elevation.  

We camped at the Chisos basin campground for two days so we'd be near the hike, and hiked the Lost Mine trail early in the morning to avoid the heat of mid-day.

Here's a photo of the great view from the top. Bliss Moment! 

Here's the photo album of the hike

Boquillas Canyon Hike 2018

This is our second time hiking Boquillas Canyon, the first time was in 2014 when we camped for a week in the Chisos Mountains.

Boquillas Canyon is about 6 miles from where we live in the park

We typically start our hikes early in the day, since we are here in Summer.  The mornings in Big Bend are beautiful, cool and sometimes breezy.  So, hiking early is the thing to do when it's hot.

Rio Grande overlook about 1/2 mile into the canyon hike

Boquillas is one of the 3 major canyons in Big Bend National Park; the other two being Santa Elena and Mariscal Canyons. According to the Texas State Historical Association, the word Boquillas means "little mouths" in Spanish.  This probably refers to Boquillas Cayon's relatively narrow canyon mouth.

The mouth of the Canyon

There is lots of brush at the beginning of the hike

Hiking in we found the ever-present, hand-made metal art left by Mexicans from across the river. Some of the stuff is really nice and you want to buy it (they leave a jar for money), but the park says it's illegal to do so.  So, no goodies on this trip. Maybe we'll get some in Boquillas (the city across the border) which is legal.

Mexican trinkets for sale along the trail

We were so lucky this time to see horses in the canyon across in Mexico. Walking along the river we saw a group of mares with their foals.

Another group of hikers in the water started walking towards them and the horses spooked and crossed the river to our side.

A friendly Mexican man met later, named Jesus, crossed over himself, followed the horses and chased them back over to the Mexican side.

When we reach the end of the hike into the canyon where the trail ended at the water, there was a beautiful rock wall I may investigate further next time.

Lava rock wall

Panorama looking back from the end of the trail

You can find the photo album for this trip here.