We spent three nights camping at Big Bend National Park. This immense national park is named for the "big bend" that the Rio Grande river makes in Southwestern Texas. It's mostly desert and mountains...huge mountain-sized rocks and piles of sand. The place is really beautiful; the strange kind of beauty that you only find in the desert. The temperatures ranged from a low of 38 one night to a high of 101 on our first day
Rick and I really enjoyed this place. We took four different hikes of varying difficulty, to very different places. My favorite was this one to the Chisos basin.
We also enjoyed this hike to an abandoned resort. This is all that remains of the bath house where the spring produces 105 degree water.
We stayed at a NPS campground called Rio Grande Village. There were no "hookups" so we had to rely on our batteries, our propane, and our generator. We did quite well. Decent wifi was available at the camp store, but there was no cell phone reception anywhere in the park.
Being from the east, our knowledge of the immigration/illegal alien struggles that plague the western states was not first-hand. We were shocked to be stopped twice by border patrol agents. Each time they just asked us whether we were US citizens. I guess they were listening for hispanic accents, but I have to say I was really annoyed.
Our campground was on the Rio Grande river and so, was literally a stones throw from Mexico. Mexican nationals would sneak over during the night and leave walking sticks and other crafts that they had made along with a jar to put your money in. There were signs everywhere saying that it is illegal to purchase any of these items. Many American simply left "donations" in the jar without taking any of the merchandise.
A "tobacco tree"
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