Day 2: Big Bend and the River Road

Today we visited Big Bend National Park. It's in the far southwestern corner of Texas, and it is VERY remote. There's no cell service, and compared with most national parks, not even many people visit it. But it is stunningly beautiful.

We didn't have a whole lot of time, so we mainly did a big loop scenic drive through about half of the park. We entered at the eastern Panther Junction entrance.

We stopped at the visitor center, then drove up to the Basin up in the Chisos Mountains. We took a look around there and saw the Window.

Then, we drove back out along the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to see the Mule Ears, which is one of Big Bend's landmarks.



From there, we drove down to see Santa Elena Canyon. We stopped and ate a picnic lunch at an
overlook. The canyon is just amazing! The Mexican side of the Rio Grande is also a national park, but it's a lot more remote than the US side.

Then we drove up Old Maverick Road, which is a 4 wheel drive unpaved road. Sean had fun driving his truck on it!

We stopped at Luna's Jacal, which was the home of a man who was a farmer in Big Bend back before it was a National Park.

From there, we drove out the western gate, and stopped in Terlingua. It's home of the Viva Terlingua chili Cookoff, which was this past weekend. The Trading Post sells all sorts of things like Tshirts, Mexican pottery, and other touristy stuff. The old Terlingua Cemetery was still decorated for Dia De Los Muertos.

Of course, we I had to have Sean take my picture with Clay Henry, the beer drinking goat that's the
mayor of the tiny town of Lajitas!

Our last activity for the day was driving the River Road from Lajitas to Presidio. It is one of the most scenic drives in the entire USA. The road was twisty and windy, but it followed the Rio Grande through some amazing mountain county. And in the golden sunlight of early evening, it was even more spectacular!


We stopped at a TXDOT picnic area with its iconic tepees along the river for some photos.

 

Tonight's lodging is the Three Palms Inn in Presidio. It's an old school motel, but it's clean and it's inexpensive. It’s also next door to a good Mexican restaurant! Tomorrow will be more driving to Marfa, Fort Davis and Alpine...and our date with the Otto Struve 82" telescope at McDonald Observatory!