Big Bend National Park, It Doesn’t Get Old

This is our third visit to Big Bend National Park (my fourth, but that’s another story). And from the minute I looked around Rio Grande Village at the cottonwoods and gorgeous cliffs I knew I wasn’t tired of it.

The campground is a parking lot that was converted to full hookup campsites, but even a parking lot is beautiful in these surroundings.

We set up after a long drive here yesterday and as soon as I could I took Matey for a short walk down the park road towards the Daniels Ranch Picnic Area.

This isn’t a ranch anymore but there were unfenced cattle happily munching near the campground.

And I saw my favorite western bird, a roadrunner.

There are also a few horses that hang around the campground.

And I mean right around.

This morning Matey and I went out to find a coyote just chilling in the pasture next to the campground.

Then I spotted a larger one at the back of the field. We eyed each other for a bit, then he walked across the the campground driveway, hopped up on the cement rail along the side of the cattle guard leading in and calmly walked across the irrigation ditch and off into the bushes.

Later in the morning we saw this guy. I took this through the dinette window; we think it’s a bobcat.

He too got up and walked away.

Pretty good wildlife for a parking lot!

I am also always impressed with the immensity of this place. Yesterday as we came through the northern entrance our map program said we still had 45 miles to go to the campground.

Today we took a drive on the Old Ore Road, a pretty rough dirt road through the immensity of this park.

We stopped and walked back…

to revisit the grave of Juan de Leon, which sits alone by the side of this track. I don’t know how he came to be there.

Matey is not allowed on the trails here, but there are plenty of backcountry roads for him to walk.

We drove to Ernst Tinaja where there is a primitive campsite…

with the only amenity this food locker.

It’s also the trailhead for this trail to the Tinaja. Bud waited with Matey in the truck while I walked back.

There were rock nettles blooming in this protected canyon, the only flowers I’ve seen yet, but the blooms were full of bees! How did they find the flowers, and where do they live? Life astounds me!

The gravel is outwash from the drainage from these hills.

Looking back you see how the water has piled the gravel and scraped bare the bedrock.

The canyon narrowed and the view got more dramatic.

The rocks were pink and grey and red.

And this is Ernst Tinaja. That is a huge hole, probably 20 feet across, and it’s hard to tell in this cloudy light, but it was full of water.

The view walking back was pretty dramatic, too.

After I got back to the truck I walked Matey for a bit on the road out. I stopped and took this 360 degree video that gives some impression of the vast openness here.

We crawled our way back the rough Old Ore Road until we got back to the paved park road.

Then we drove back, through the tunnel, and back to the campground.

Can you see why Big Bend continues to fascinate even after several visits?