2nd Day of Texas Vacation - Into the interior of Big Bend Ranch State Park

 Big Bend Ranch State Park - into the Interior

Headed out about 10:30am.  Back to the west again, planning to take the dirt road into the interior of the Big Bend Ranch State Park to a bird viewing area recommended by the Texas State Park Ranger.  Here's our intended route - start at the bottom right - Maverick RV Park in yellow, then follow the pink line. 

But first a stop at Colorado Canyon to look for birds & see the Rio Grande again! There was a sign warning that crossing over into Mexico was a $5000 fine!  We made sure to stay on our side.  Didn't see many birds, but enjoyed the walk.

Then a short hike at the Hoodoos.  The trail was not marked at all, so we wandered a bit.  After we got back up & looked at the map, we saw where we went wrong, but it was interesting anyway.  Saw a few little birds.  You are not supposed to use the recorded bird sounds while in the State park, but I was trying to check to see if I was really iding the Black Throated Sparrow correctly (I am simply abysmal at identifying the birds!!!!!) & one nearly landed on me when I played the recording.  Sooooo....guess i was right this time!  It was funny.  Saw several others, but couldn't really tell what they were.  My Merlin wasn't working well because we didn't have internet, but it was still a lot of fun looking at them with the binoculars.  The views were very nice!

The rest of the afternoon was a long long drive on an "improved" dirt road into the interior of the Big Bend Ranch State park.  It was about 15 miles & took a little over an hour to get to the "wild life" viewing area.  George didn't mind driving & the only disappointment was that the scenery was pretty much the same - dry Chihuahuan Desert.  There was a little color from the rocks & the occasional green from a creek, but mostly just dusty.  Didn't meet many cars thank goodness.  Amazing to me that someone had gone to the trouble of setting up a bird blind.  But we found it easily, met a car coming out & then after the short walk to the blind, we found 2 men quietly sitting inside.  One had a HUGE spotter - biggest I have ever ever seen - at least 2' long & 6" in circumfrence.  Since the little blind was set up with the water about 6' in front, it was a bit of an over kill for sure.  I am pretty sure he was the guide that advertises for guiding around here, too expensive for just the 2 of us, but I overheard him asking the young man with him if it was worth it & the young man was very enthusiastic.  Only saw 2 Mourning Doves, several different kinds of sparrow & what the guide said was a Purple Finch.  I have my doubts about that since it has rarely been seen here in this park, but he's the professional, so what do I know?  I put it on my life list anyway!!  We ate our cheese & crackers & apple in the blind after they left.  There was another blind about 8 miles further in, but we decided we had seen enough of the dirt road!!!  After getting back on pavement, we decided to go ahead & drive the extra 8 miles on 170 to see Presidio.  I failed to get a single picture of the small community of less that 5000 residents.  It was clean & had 2 Dollar Generals, a Family Dollar & a Dollar Store.  Hummmm?  Also a high school & a combined 1 - 8th grade school.  Both looked fairly new.  Never saw a regular grocery store & we turned around at the border crossing.  Filled up with the cheapest fuel we've seen in a while - only $4.11 per gallon!  It was an enjoyable day & we fought a bit of drowsiness on the way back to the RV for a nice supper of grilled chicken!  Tomorrow we will head to the National Park!