Mileage: 70,019
Rio Grande Village RV Park Big Bend National Park Big Bend, Texas
It was a crisp fall morning. We headed south on 90 toward Big Bend National Park. NO interstate today…no traffic…just a peaceful easy ride in a fairly remote portion of southern Texas…a great day to ENJOY THE RIDE in the desert surrounded by mesas and mountain peaks.
Our breakfast stop this morning was at an art installation in Valentine called Prada Marfa. This is a false store front that has actual Prada merchandise displayed inside. The door does not open. What does this art installation actually say? Is it a testament to commercialism? It certainly makes you think…it was completely out of place on this remote stretch of desert highway.
These are love locks. Couples come here to this chain-link fence, (surrounding the Prada exhibit), with their padlocks to pledge everlasting and eternal love and devotion…they attach the padlock to the fence and throw away the key!
Some tumbleweed.
We had a great wildlife viewing day. We saw several small groups of pronghorn in the distance. Then we saw a herd of about 20 pronghorn antelopes along the road. Tim saw a tarantula crossing. We also saw lots of hawks. In the park later today, we saw an unknown mammal…maybe a coati or a ringtail or maybe something we have never seen before!!!
We have passed a lot of Tethered Aerostat Radar Systems. These monitoring units are operated by the US Customs and Border Protection Service. The helium filled balloons or blimps perform “low level ground surveillance.” They rise up to 15,000 feet and are tethered by a single cable. They are meant to help curtail drug smuggling and other illegal activities along the border between Mexico and the United States.
Our scenery today.
The town of Marfa is a community of artists with lots of galleries and art installations. But the town of Marfa is also well known for the Marfa Mystery Lights. These lights are unexplained red, white, or blue lights that occur along the horizon in a very isolated part of the desert that is difficult to access. Visitors from around the world come to witness these lights. Is this paranormal activity or perhaps the reflection of light from passing cars or from scattered campfires???
We passed through the town of Alpine which was an interesting composition of western/tourist/working town.
At last, we were on 118. This is a road that we have not traveled before. We were flanked by the Santiago Mountains.
Kokernot Mesa.
We last visited Big Bend in January of 2019. This was during the government shutdown. There were several things we missed doing…and it is a beautiful park. We came here the first time because Tim’s brother, Jeff, said that this was one of his favorite places.
Once we were settled, we went to explore. Our first trail was the Rio Grande Nature Trail. Mexican beavers live in river banks. They have created a pond here.
We climbed the hillside for an awesome view.
We walked to the river.
We saw this heron fishing.
A turtle.
The Rio Grande River with Mexico just cross the water.
We stopped at the visitor center. There was a photographer there taking pictures for a new park brochure. He asked Tim to pose in front of this mural with his cowboy hat.
The Boquilla Canyon Overlook.
Mexican trinkets for sale.
We also walked a short distance on the Boquilla Canyon Trail.
We saw this group of 8 canoes loaded with camping gear. They were headed down the river into the Boquilla Canyon.
Tim was able to stand very close to this roadrunner. Maybe she was guarding young…but she didn’t move even as Tim got closer.
We drove to another river overlook and walked to the river’s edge.
We saw a band of 10 Javelina.
We enjoyed our dinner of grilled tilapia outside this evening. It was wonderfully mild. We watched the sliver of moon rise and the stars began to pop out. Bats flew overhead.
November Days of Thanks Day 1: First and foremost we are so very grateful for our two sons, our grandsons and Andrea and Allison…you all have our hearts<3