Author Archives: Jill and Bud

Bud and I went back to the Hot Springs Historic District to try to find the pictographs I had seen a sign for. There was not enough left of them to even photograph. So we walked on down to the hot springs and this time we found this taco stand on the Mexican side. Of course it is illegal to cross here, but there was a well worn path where folks waded the river and walked up the bank for a meal.

Again Bud surprised me by agreeing to continue the hike, so we walked on down the path until we came to the upper trail of the Hot Springs Loop and ascended the ridges.

Now we were looking down on the river as well as out along the cliffs and canyons.

We watched a group of canoers pass by. They were probably going through the Boquillas Canyon to a landing at the end of a ranch road just outside the park. That would be a gorgeous trip.

That canyon is just downstream of our campground, and cuts through the Sierra del Carmen Mountains. They contain that huge striped ridge that is in the background of many of my photos, including this one. By the way, that ridge is in Mexico as the Rio Grande cuts northeast there.

As we topped the first ridge we got a good view upstream.

We were now a long ways above the river.

I have been admiring how well these trails are made and maintained. We came across this guy who is a member of the trails team. He explained that this section of the trail was probably built in the 1940’s, when the hot springs were operated as a commercial resort. This section had washed out. The repair he was doing tried to keep as much as possible to the original, including reusing most of the original rocks.

The letters he’s written on the rocks are his system for labeling thickness so he can better fit them back. I thanked him and told him how I had been admiring their work. He was glad to hear it.

Not far past the trail repair we came to what was left of J.O. Langford’s house. He homesteaded the hot springs for his health, then developed the resort and eventually built this house on the edge of the cliff…

directly above the hot springs. He had a pulley system to bring up water for his use. I wonder if he set it up to bring up hot and cold.

We ascended one last ridge…

and walked down along the edge of the side canyon where the buildings of the resort are located.

Notice the palms that were planted.

These are far from home.

So is this car.

Even the drive in and out of this spot is a bit of an adventure. The road follows the side canyon and for a ways it’s split, one way on each side of the wash.

I folded the mirror in on my side so Bud could hug the rocky wall. Obviously no RV’s are allowed on this road. They don’t even allow pickup trucks with dual rear wheels. (Be sure to open this in the app so you can see the video.)

Another interesting day at Big Bend.

Bud wanted to have time to smoke some meat and Matey seems content with half mile walks so I proposed that Bud drive me to the Hot Springs Historic District and I could hike the three miles back to the campground.

I didn’t spend time at the historic area…

I just walked by the old buildings.

This area was developed to coax people to come and enjoy the nearby hot spring that bubbles up on the edge of the Rio Grande. If they didn’t want to camp they could stay in one of these rooms, no water, though.

I was here to hike the trail and with a 3 mile “moderate” hike to do I didn’t want to linger. The sign was blunt, “No Water – No Shade”. This time I was better prepared, I had sun protection, two bottles of drink and I had downloaded the trail map.

It was a great day, blue sky and cool temperatures. The trail here was very well made.

I walked past the hot springs. There was once an enclosed bathhouse here, you can still see the foundation and you can go into the 105 degree water it encloses.

The trail was easy and flat here, but there was rough country ahead.

Soon the trail began to climb…

and I could look down on more of the river,

and the ahead to the spectacular cliffs. Many times during the hike I was wondering just where, through those rocks, the trail would take me.

I think it was justifiably rated a moderate trail. The climbs up the rocky parts…

brought me to smoother parts up top…

and more beautiful views.

I enjoyed the close-up scenery, too.

Very pretty,

just don’t touch.

When I was high above the river I came across these two horses.

Baby gets a drink, but momma has a long walk before she can drink.

I could follow my progress on the downloaded map.

But the map doesn’t show you the huge gully that’s just beyond the cactus, between you and the trail on the far side.

Turns out you just have to walk up the side canyon a ways until you can walk down and back up again. None of it was too steep or too scary but it was a workout.

The trail was well made,

with cuts made to divert rainwater,

and in some of the steeper places, steps.

And always the views. This is looking far over the Rio Grande into Mexico. That sand area is visible for miles, it would be interesting to see it up close.

I kept thinking as I crested a ridge that I would see the river again and the plain with the campground, but instead there was another, higher, ridge.

Finally, there it was, the river again, and to the left of center our parking lot campground.

I still had quite a ways to walk to get down there.

The trail was taking me towards the gorge.

I walked far enough out on the overlook spur…

to get a glimpse of the river. It may not look it, but that’s a long ways down.

I also saw this cowboy leading two horses. They are all on the Mexican side, the Rio Grande is blocked from view by the cliff.

A bit later I came to the last descent.

This was a sign for the trail at this end of it. I think I’m glad it wasn’t at the end where I started.

But I made it, it was a beautiful hike.

I walked the half mile back the park road and had my lunch.

This morning when I walked Matey there were no cattle or horses, there were donkeys.

They grazed right into the campground, which was very entertaining for Matey.

When we were done watching donkeys we headed to the six mile long Grapevine Hills Road. It’s a better road than the Old Ore Road, but in places not by much. It takes you down to those brown hills in the middle distance. We were headed for Balanced Rock Trail, which Jack had recommended.

Again Bud waited in the truck with Matey so I could do this short hike. Today the sky was bright blue and it had warmed to the upper fifties by the time I started the walk.

The beginning of this trail was also up a sandy wash.

If you don’t have trees to mark a trail you use what you have.

There are plenty of rocks here.

So far it was an easy walk, but things looked more difficult ahead.

The trail was taking me up and closer to the rocks.

It’s rugged and beautiful.

Now it was about to get interesting.

I quickly gained altitude and a nice view of the trail behind me.

It’s not so easy to find the trail here, but if you look close you may be able to pick out the metal trail sign ahead.

I was right up among the boulders now.

And here I am…

under the balanced rock. A nice young woman from Austin took these for me.

This is looking out from under the rock.

I started back down and right away went astray. Oops, those footsteps in the dust were not the trail, but this is a pretty dead end and it was only 50 feet or so in the wrong direction.

Right after I took this shot I must have missed the trail again as I ended up on a steep and slippery shortcut. The young woman was following me, happily we both made it safely back to the more level part of the main trail.

I hurried to get back to the truck, the hike was about 2 miles.

Bud and Matey had walked a bit further down Grapevine Hills Road and seen their own balanced rock. Bud drove me down to see it. Pretty spectacular.

Once we made it back out the dirt road we took the paved road up into the Chisos Mountains to Chisos Basin.

Of course there are spectacular rocks here, too.

Another switchback closer and you can see the campground below and get a sense of just how big this basin is.

We parked and took a look at the campground. It’s beautiful here, but we would never fit. Trailers are limited to 20 feet.

We walked around to look at the surrounding peaks and let Matey stretch his legs.

Notice the pine trees on this peak. It’s a whole other ecosystem here.

The drive back was one long descent.

Chisos Basin is at an altitude of 5400 feet. Twenty five miles later we were back at Rio Grande Village and just 1,800 feet above sea level.

The donkeys were still hanging out.

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?

They ended up having two no shows for the cave tour, so Bud and I joined the group getting aboard the State Park van.

After a drive of a few miles, about half on a dirt track, we arrived at the trail up to the cave.

So we have to climb in that hole?

Yep.

Unfortunately, once inside Bud and I discovered that neither of our flashlights was up to the job. We don’t have headlamps, our back up lights were the flashlight apps on our phones, but we couldn’t even turn Bud’s on. So this is as far as we got. We were willing to wait at the entrance for the rest to come back, but they have an extra person and an extra vehicle to take people back if they decide not to go on. We were the drop outs this time.

Afterwards I talked to a couple, fellow campers and older like us. They said we made the right choice to turn back. There were places where you had to climb over rocks and slide down on your butt. Coming back you had to climb back that slope you’d slid down. Doing that without being able to see well and with a dim flashlight in your hand would not have been fun and might have been dangerous.

So if we want to see any more of this cave it will have to be next time with proper lights. It might be interesting to go in a wild cave, but if the only light I have is the one I’m carrying I want it to be a very good one. What was I thinking? But honestly, we didn’t realize how bad our lights were until we had to rely on only them to see.

This morning was foggy and drizzly, but in the upper fifties. Surprisingly, Bud said he would walk with Matey and me. We chose a short hike on the Vireo View Trail. Those stalks you see are Sotol. Seeing them was like seeing old friends again, “Oh, I know you.”

It was nice to have Bud along.

The views were muted, but nice.

This would be an inviting place to rest in the hot sun.

The middle third of our walk took us along a vehicle track, part of which had a thin layer of gluey mud and part was gravely. This resulted in poor Matey having little stones glued to his muddy feet. We had to stop several time to pull them off.

We were all happy to get off that and back on the park road.

Despite the disappointments, we really like this place. It’s rare to find a place with such solitude and such good amenities. We will be back!

We only drove 120 miles today, but it brought us to an area we haven’t been before.

I’m not used to these kinds of rolling hills in Texas.

We are the blue dot on the map, and we’re in the Western Hill Country, well west of Austin and San Antonio, but not into the flatter land near the Rio Grande.

It was an interesting drive with many, many places with flood warning signs and high water indicators in the low spots.

On the 30 or so miles coming south on Ranch Road 674 we also crossed several cattle guards, “bridges” of round bars the cattle can’t cross, and entered areas of “Loose Livestock”, although we saw none.

There are only 15 campsites in this state park, but 5 of them, including ours, have 50 Amp service and water and sewer.

There is plenty of space around each site. This is looking up the main road of the campground, and you can’t really see where the other sites are.

After we got set up Matey and I took a short walk on the Seargeant Memorial Trail. This land was the Seargeant Ranch until 1986, until Tommy Seargeant was able to donate it and have it made a state park.

The windmill is the one that was used on the ranch…

and some of the miles of galvanized pipes that took water to the pastures are visible along the trail.

There is scrub oak and juniper here, but also prickly pear cactus and honey mesquite. We are on the edge of the desert.

The trail was short but had a couple of fairly steep places. Matey is happily going back down part of the trail where I carried him up.

I wanted to make it up here, to the overlook…

and the Tommy Seargeant Memorial.

There is a cavern here that you can only go through on a guided tour. When I booked the site I thought I could easily book a tour later. But when I tried I found that not only is the park only open Friday through Monday, there is only one tour each week (Saturday at 1:00) and they only take 10 people. So we are on “standby”, but the nice man at the office told us to come down tomorrow at 12:30 and they would see what they could do.

If we miss the cave tour I won’t mind coming back here another year to enjoy the beauty, the solitude and the silence. And I will book the tour when I book the site!

It’s still cold, but sunny, so Matey and I have done some walking. Twice Bud has dropped us off at the gate to the large section of the park across the highway.

There we walked a short section of the trail through the oak and juniper thicket.

This is a winding, pretty trail.

After only a half mile we left the trail and headed back to our campsite.

That’s because to get back we had to cross this open land, the highway and the campground on the other side.

Our half mile trail walk was a mile and a third by time we got back.

We were at this campground three years ago and then we walked pretty much every trail on the map. But it’s been too cold to use the stroller and after a two mile walk at the last park we ended up taking Matey to the vet. He’s now on pain medication for arthritis, but she told me that adrenaline could make him want to walk farther than he should. So this visit we have only walked around the part of the park between the highway and the river and two short walks on the Teal Trail, the closest trail to our side of the park. I miss our long walks.

On Monday we moved to Kerrville-Schreiner Park, a park run by the city of Kerrville, Texas. It was cold and cloudy but we were able to fill our water tank and use both our electric heaters with the 50 Amp service. We needed to add the gas furnace to bring the trailer up from the 50 degrees it had cooled to during the move. The air temperature was only 36 and with no sun it felt worse.

This park is an old state park built along the Guadeloupe River.

Matey and I took a short walk along a very pretty trail between the river and some cabins.

The original park was built by the CCC and you could see their work in the stone steps and terraces in front of the cabins.

This morning we woke up to temperatures in the low twenties and a light covering of snow. The sky was clearing from the west to the east.

Mid-morning the sun was out. The snow was no match for the southern sun. It was still below freezing but the sun was sublimating the snow; taking it directly from solid flakes to water vapor without any liquid water formed.

This system will be mostly passed tomorrow, meanwhile, the park has all the water taps dripping to make sure pipes don’t freeze and burst. Not the sight we were hoping for south of I-10, but we are happy that for both these uncomfortable shots of winter we have been safely settled with all we needed. Still, I hope this is the last of winter for us this year.

Right in Jack and Sharon’s neighborhood is the Wizard Academy. As it says, it is totally not a cult. It began when a marketing consultant, so good he was called “the wizard”, decided to stop traveling to companies around the country and instead have students come to him.

It’s a very eclectic place and the grounds are scattered with sculptures.

Thursday afternoon we went there with Jack and Sharon. The others tried the whiskey and beer at the artisan distillery on site, I tried a Blueberry Soda from Maine, of all places. Here we are waiting for our food order from the Mexican food truck also on site. It was all very good. Matey is in his stroller because he was not very energetic.

After we ate, Jack, Matey and I strolled around the grounds. We saw more sculptures.

There are some beautiful views of the surrounding hill country.

That is the Wizard Academy Tower and even though the sign says “Students Only” we walked up to it.

It’s a fascinating building.

There are more sculptures. Jack said this one was supposed to be a figurehead for the bow of the ship, the ship being the tower.

And this is the channel the “ship” is sailing. There are two lions guarding the channel.

This sculpture now marks the back boundary of the property.

It’s a very odd and beautiful place and there are never many people around. It’s a fun place to visit.

On Saturday Jack and Sharon came out to the park. Bud was working on a wonderful dinner of smoked salmon and stuffed squash. Sharon and Matey stayed with him while Jack and I took a hike. We had to park more than a half mile away from the trail we wanted to take because there were so many people out enjoying the nice sunny day before a bout of frigid weather. We walked the Rock Shelter Trail to reach the Homestead Trail where we wanted to walk and Jack took this photo of me in that pretty place.

Ultimately we reached our goal of the Williamson Creek Overlook Trail. This is Jack at the overlook.

On the way back we passed the McKinney homestead ruins. I was not expecting a structure this imposing.

I also finally identified which tree was Old Baldy, the 500 year old Bald Cypress. I had Jack take my picture posing with this beauty. I’m glad the trail is a fenced boardwalk here, protecting the roots of this great old tree.

We went 6 miles, a great hike. And came back to a great meal. We don’t get to see Jack and Sharon enough, but we always have fun when we do.

This is our second visit to McKinney Falls State Park, which is within the city limits of Austin. It has an extensive trail system.

Yesterday I walked Matey and we looped around to the Armadillo Trail.

Matey enjoyed the trail through the oak thickets, but we saw no armadillos.

The real draw for us is getting to visit our good friends Jack and Sharon. Here we are, yesterday, about to sit and eat a wonderful meal at their house. It tasted as good as it looked.

So far the only wildlife we’ve seen are the deer that regularly graze on their front lawn.

Today they came to the park.

Sharon, Matey and I walked along Onion Creek that flows through the park.

With scenery like this you would never know you were inside the city limits.

Matey and I walked the very nice Rock Shelter Trail…

which leads right under the sheltering rock used for millennia by the people who lived here. It was a very welcoming place.

Sharon met us with their truck at the Lower Falls,

an area of gorgeous rock formations where we found Bud and Jack, who’d come down to fish. Jack caught one little fish, not a keeper. Still, it was a nice afternoon.

Good friends in a beautiful setting, you can’t ask for anything more.