3rd Day of Texas vacation - First trip into Big Bend National Park

 1st Visit to Big Bend National Park

 - Wed, 27 Apr 2022

Left the RV about 11am.  Planned to take Old Maverick Rd (13 mile dirt road) straight to Santa Elena Canyon to walk the trail before the major heat of the day (supposed to be close to 90* today), but the Park Ranger at the gate talked us out of it.  Said it was rough & would take as long or longer than taking the Ross Maxwell Scenic Road all the way around.  Took her at her word & passed it by.  The light blue is our route.  The light green shows Old Maverick Rd that we took on the way back!!!!  The yellow highlights are the stops.

First stop was Sotol Vista Overlook.  WOW!  Oh WOW!  Unbelievable view.  This is the western side of the park.  You could see the v'd crevasse of the Santa Elena Canyon.  That's our planned hike for today - short, only 1.7 miles.  Looks a long way off, but only about 18 miles away.  

Back on the road & we almost immediately got stopped for road construction.  Waited more than 15 minutes for a pilot car, then followed him through rough road & gravel - explain to me again about the old Maverick Rd being a bad choice?????  Anyway, made a short stop at a pull out to eat our peanut butter/crackers & apples, then on the way straight to the hike.  Bypassed all the other pull outs except for the Santa Elena Overlook.  Looks very impressive from above!

Only a couple of minutes to drive to the trail head.  Not mobbed by any means, but way more folks than we saw anywhere in the State Park (read that none!!).  It was hot - probably close to 100*.  Sign warning that during spring & fall be off the trail by noon.  It was 2pm.  Heavy sigh!  But what the heck, we've been doing our walk in Mesa in the heat also, so off we went.  At first you walk across the dry river bed, not even muddy - completely dry & crumbly.  Sign noted that you must make your own determination about crossing - if the current was fast, avoid the crossing.  Humm?  Wonder how long it's been since there was a current?  We had passed a spot about a half mile back that was where the river rafting companies take their boats out.  Guessing there hasn't been any rafting here this past season.  Interestingly enough, there was a comment about how dry the Santa Elena Canyon is right now with pictures & using them to emphasize how bad the current drought is.  The next section of the hike was man made steps & cement ramps.  Description of the hike said there was 80' elevation gain.  Seemed a bit more, but I didn't have anything to measure it!  Ha!  In the heat & with the UV of 11 here, it felt awfully hot.  No hand railings & we passed one lady who was hunkered down & said she was taken aback because there were no rails.  We've seen much worse, so we just laughed & continued on.  The trail was wide & easily navigated.

Back down to water level to finish the short hike.   Passed some rangers working on the trail - mostly resetting signs describing incidentals - plants, geology, history, etc.  They warned us to stay back as far as possible from the mules to avoid being kicked.  One was looking antsy & lifting it's leg, but we didn't have any issues.  There was one couple relaxing in the shade at the sign saying to stop.  Another showed up before we left.  One other couple showed up that had by passed the sign & were wading in the 6" muddy water with their tevos.  We stepped into the center of the river bed & took a few pictures up & down the river.  It was very pleasant in the narrow canyon.

On the way back, we asked one of the NP Rangers about the bird call we kept hearing (a rising note of tee tee tee tee tew tew tew tew). He said it was a Canyon Wren. Here's a link to listen to the song & get some info about the bird. https://www.birdnote.org/listen/shows/song-canyon-wren  

We sat in the Jeep & enjoyed the a/c & some hydrating sparkling water for a few minutes before driving back up the Ross Maxwell road to see the stops we had skipped.  Shot stop at the  Desert Overlook and then a drive through of the Cottonwood Campground (saw a Road Runner playing king on the mountain) & a quick look at the Castolon Visitor's Center (it's pretty abysmal!).  

The female ranger at the Castolon was not as negative about the Old Maverick road as the initial one, although she still wasn't encouraging. We decided to do it anyway, rather than face the possibility of a long Pilot car wait again. Glad we did. Scenery was very different & interesting & we saw a coyote! The rest of the drive home was easy

After a lovely dinner (George grilled pork & I fixed brocolli, yellow squash, & a salad), we took a short walk around the resort area.  Called the Lajitas Boardwalk, it's a strange mix of western & ritzy.  Had originally planned to eat at the restaurant, but with prices of $18 for just a lunch burger and $55 for the evening entree's, we decided we liked our own food much better!  Might try a pizza from the Saloon, but not even positive that would be worth it!  They seem to be attracting the fly in crowd from Dallas for the Golf Course.  But it was a nice walk & we saw another Roadrunner!  Just at the entrance to our park, there is a old historic looking cemetery.  From what I've read, this town dates back to pre 1800's.  There was a mining boom for mercury that brought in some folks.  The cemetery was cleaned up a little in the mid 1900's, but most of the grave markers were lost.  The plots are raised & odd looking with cairns of the local rocks covering them.  Tomorrow we're taking a day off from the hard work of vacationing!  Then planning other forays into Big Bend NP on Friday & Saturday.