Our long drive across Texas finally brought us to a place I’ve wanted to visit for decades: Big Bend National Park. The park is named after the big southward bend in the Rio Grande, which serves as the border between the U.S. and Mexico. The bump out creates a portion of Texas and the U.S. that is further south than portions of Mexico, and most of the land is part of the national park.
We drove from Del Rio through heavy winds that killed our gas mileage and necessitated two fill-ups to get there. We had reservations at the Rio Grande Village RV Park, the only campground there with any hookups.
Our first full day in the park we decided to go to Mexico. Just a mile or two from the campground, there’s an official U.S port of entry just above the Rio Grande. After getting some instructions from the park rangers, we walked down to the river and paid a man $10 to row us across the river. Well, technically, he dragged us across the river. The water was so low, he just walked across and pulled the boat by hand.
We could have walked across ourselves, but the boat crossing is part of the local economy and part of the charm. So we paid our money and crossed into Mexico.
On the other side of the river, you can pay to ride a truck or a mule a half mile into the village. We decided to walk instead. A family of four that had crossed just before us, hired two mules for their kids, while the parents walked alongside.
The tiny village of Boquillas del Carmen is technically within a Mexican national park, so we were advised to first stop in at the park headquarters and pay our entry fee of $4 a person.
We got the sense that most of the village’s money comes from tourists like us. The occupants of the small houses along the main road set up tables to sell mostly the same souvenirs. Little kids, some looked as young as 3 or 4 years old, ran up to us offering woven bracelets for $5 apiece. It was a Saturday, so we hoped most of them would be in school during the week.
There wasn’t much to do in the village, we walked through the entire town, dutifully looking at all the souvenirs for sale and saying hello to the locals selling them.
There are two restaurants in town. The park ranger had told us that one of them had wonderful cabrito (goat meat) tacos, and it looked to be the less established restaurant of the two. We ordered a beer and a bottle of water. I had the tacos and Mrs. 123 tried the chicken tamales. The food was fresh and authentic. I loved the salsa and we both enjoyed the fried tortillas with refried beans that came with our orders. The entire meal came to about $22 including the tip.
There was little else to do in town, so we walked back to the river, and crossed back into the U.S. Nobody checked our passports on the Mexican side, but on the U.S. side, two U.S. Customs and Immigrations officers checked our documents.
It was still early, so we decided to go for a short hike. The Balanced Rock trail, at the end of a six-mile, rough dirt road, follows a gravel wash before climbing steeply to set of rocks balanced upon each other.
On our way back to the campground, we stopped at the Fossil Discovery Exhibit, which showcases some of the dinosaur remains found in the area. The unique geological history of the park has made it a prime source of bones and fossils not found anywhere else.
The following morning, I got up early to hike up Emory Peak, the highest point in Big Bend. The trail starts at the visitor center in Chisos Basin. There’s a lovely campground there as well, but some tight turns limit the road to trailers under 19 feet.
The Chisos Mountains are the remnants of a large volcano that collapsed upon itself and the only mountain range completely within a national park. That morning, much of the mountains were sitting within a low-lying cloud that reduced visibility to just a few feet. The fog was as thick as clam chowder and water beaded up on my windshield.
But Chisos Basin itself, and the hike up to Emory Peak, sat above the clouds. As I emerged from the fog, it looked like a beautiful day for a hike.
The route to the summit follows the Pinnacles Trail, which climbs steadily for more than three miles before connecting with the Emory Peak Trail. That trail traverses to the base of a summit block with two rock towers. At first, I thought the left tower was the higher, but after scrambling up to the top, I could clearly see the right one was taller. I climbed back down, and scrambled up the second tower. The views from the top, with some of the Chisos Mountain peaks emerging from the clouds was spectacular.
Mrs. 123 and I had plans to hike the Lost Mine Trail that afternoon, but as it sat squarely in the cloud, we opted to do the Window Trail instead.
The trail is a moderately difficult hike that descends through Oak Creek Canyon to the Window, an opening out of which the Oak Creek, when flowing, pours into the valley below. The creek has polished the rock at the pour-off to a slippery finish. We carefully inched as far as we could to look through the Window without becoming a casualty of the park.
On our last day in Big Bend, we drove out to the Castolon district, crossing the entire park from East to West. The road there ends at the St. Elena Canyon, where we hiked a little over a mile into the canyon. The trail ends at a dramatic spot where the Rio Grande cuts through near vertical walls on both sides. Mexico is just a stone’s throw away and some of the other visitors had fun walking across the river and stepping on Mexican soil for a photo or two, before coming back.
That evening, we wanted to catch the sunset along the Rio Grande Village Nature Trail, a short trail that overlooks the river. The clouds blocked the sunset that evening, but we did see some javelina from the trail.
Big Bend is a hiker’s park and we were happy to have gotten so much hiking in, particularly after spending the previous two weeks in more urban settings. We’ll be on a run of national parks — five over the next two weeks — and we couldn’t be more excited!
Driving through the park we also crossed a major milestone: 10,000 miles traveled. And we’re not yet a third of the way through the year.
Days: 72
Miles Traveled: 10,045
Next stop: Guadalupe Mountains National Park
