This is gonna be a long one! I headed south from White Sands, pausing to call 911 for a kid from the nearby military base whose car had started on fire while he was going down the highway. (By the time the volunteer firefighters arrived 30 minutes later, there was really nothing left--incredible--but no one hurt, thank goodness.)
And then soon after continuing on my way, I crossed into the great state of…
I checked out El Paso a bit and then headed farther south through lovely West Texas landscape…
…to the Big Bend area. The reason this post is so long is because I LOVED the Big Bend region. Oh my gosh. I already liked Austin, but this part of the state really catapulted Texas higher on my list of faves among the 50. My first stop was the impossibly adorable, remote, artsy town of Marfa. I loved its historical buildings...
…great coffee and juice shops, and the Saturday morning market where I got a homemade burrito.
From Marfa I continued south to Terlingua. This town originally developed as a mercury mining town, then became a ghost town, and has been revived as a tourist trap of sorts--though a pretty great tourist trap.
It was nearly bustling (shocking, given its remote location; check out a map when you have a chance) when I was there, which finally made sense when someone clued me in that they were having a big Dia de los Muertos celebration there that evening. I was tempted to stick around, but decided that being a lone traveler under very dark skies with a bunch of highly inebriated strangers might not be the wisest traveling choice. Besides, Big Bend National Park was calling. So on I drove through the gorgeous landscape.
Once in the park, I went for a hike into Santa Elena canyon…
…appreciated the oh-so-western rock formations vying for attention everywhere I looked…
…hiked through a canyon of volcanic tuff…
…appreciated the sunset on my way up to the Chisos plateau…
…and marveled at what must be one of the best sunset views offered by any national park campground in this country.
My second day in the park, it was raining (an all day rain in the Chihuahuan desert? what are the chances?), but I went ahead with my plans and took a damp but worth-it walk up in the Chisos area, appreciating all the perfect agave specimens.
Then headed southeast toward the Rio Grande Village area.
There is an amazing, semi-developed hot spring right along the edge of the Rio Grande here. What a setting! How could I not take a dip, despite the rain and ensuing caking, clay mud!?!? That's Mexico on the far bank, and while I was there, other visitors were wading across to take a walk on the foreign side.
Don't know that I've ever really seen the Rio Grande before. It's not as grand as you might assume, as so much of its flow is diverted for agriculture and city water supplies farther north. But it is still lovely. Again, that's the States on the right side of the picture and Mexico on the left.
The impressive Boquillas Canyon, with canoe trippers preparing to float on in:
After a decade-long closure, a pretty fun feature of Big Bend National Park has been revived: a class B border crossing from the park to the Mexican-side town of Boquillas del Carmen. Again…how could I NOT check it out?!?!
With a fellow traveler I met at the hot springs, I climbed into the row boat that takes people across the river to the Mexican side…
…walked for a bit in a country that somehow manages to be way more colorful than our own, at pretty much every turn…
…had real, Mexican-made burritos for lunch…
…and then appreciated the scenery walking the 3/4-mile back to the row-boat crossing...
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