Day 30 – Big Bend National Park (Day 1)

Road To Rio Grande Village (Big Bend NP)

We basically drove due south from Pecos through flat land and oil fields until we hit Big Bend National Park. The park is so big it is another 29 miles to an open Visitor Center. We learned from the NPS film that the park is larger than the state of Rhode Island and is the only National Park which totally contains a mountain range, the Chisos Mountains. Everything IS bigger in Texas!!!

Prickly Pear Cactus (Big Bend NP)

We explored the eastern side of the park today, which was not crowded and the Visitor Center there was even closed. This time of year isn’t really their busy season, which we gather is from November through Easter. The reason is obvious as it was 93 today, 104 yesterday and up to 120 in the summer. Again we had to eliminate a planned hike because of heat and instead decided to cross the border into Mexico.

We Took The Next Ride

There is a Border Patrol station in the park that allows you to cross over into Boquillas del Carmen, but you really have to want it. We went part way. We paid to be rowed across the Rio Grande into Mexico ($5 per person, round trip). From there, you have two choices. Walk the mile into town or take a burro ride for another $5. We opted to stay and chat with the people selling burro rides, partly in Spanish and partly in English. They were impressed that we had driven 30 days to get there. We stayed maybe 10 minutes.

Mexican Uber

There were a couple of things stopping us from taking the burro rides. One, there is nothing in Boquillas other than a couple of bars. Two, the 93 degrees thing again. On top of that, a burro ride doesn't seem all that appealing. And three, it kind of smacks of “Ugly American” to think they still ride burros. Those guys all had nice trucks.

View of the Valley Through the "Window"

We are spending the evening at the Chisos Mountain Lodge, which is the only night we are actually staying inside a park. This area was a volcano many million years ago and the lodge is in the basin with only a small “window” or crack in the mountain where you can view the valley below.