5th Day of Texas vacation - Second trip into Big Bend National Park

 2nd Day at Big Bend NP 

- Chisos Basin Area - Friday, 29 Apr 2022

We took yesterday (Thursday) off from sightseeing.  Piddled on computers & relaxed inside away from the heat.  Used the left over grilled chicken for Indian with rice & various vegetables for dinner.  Took a walk in the hills behind the RV park about 7:30pm.  It was still over 90*!!!!

This morning we left the RV about 11am & drove straight to Chisos Basin Visitor's Center & Lodge.  It was a beautiful clear sunny day, but very hot - mid 90's.  Not many people on the road.

The visitor's center was closed for lunch, so we took the short 1/2 mile paved loop to see the Window while we were waiting for it to open.  Saw & heard several birds.  Finally made a positive identification of the Cactus Wren.  

Enjoyed the little visitor's center.  Chatted with a volunteer for a while - he & his wife were from Fort Worth & had just retired & bought a travel trailer.  They were working at the park for a few months. 

We ate our lunch snack of nuts, apple, cookies, & cheezit's, the took the 2 mile Basin Loop.  It was a nice walk, but lots of uphill & extremely hot on the way back.  Heard several birds, but couldn't identify them.  Never saw it, but identified the White Winged Dove by it's call using Merlin.  Not many people on the trail.  We certainly feel out of shape & not enjoying this heat at all!!  Had hoped that we might glimpse a black bear - they have been reporting sightings of them all around, but we didn't see anything.

Thought we might stop for another short hike that we missed yesterday, but it was just too hot.  Just headed on back to the RV.  We'll come back this way on Sunday when we head to Laredo.  

Decided to splurge with pizza & beer at the Lajitas Resort Thirsty Goat Saloon.  It was very good & the bartender was a personable young man that was nice to talk to.  He & his wife were here as seasonal workers in a travel trailer.  Planning to leave at the end of May to travel this summer.  Hoping to see 22 National Parks just this summer!  Whew!  That will be quite a trip!  I was looking through my journal & pictures about when we visited Big Bend NP before & found almost this exact same picture of the fountain in back of the boardwalk area!  Apparently we had taken a long drive from the Rio Grande Village one day & made a quick stop here.  Had even driven a ways down 170 to see the Rio Grande.  Had totally forgotten that we had done that.  It was in April 2007.  The desert was in full bloom that year.  Very interesting to see the comparison.  Amazing that I had totally forgotten about it!  Okay, that's it for today.  Taking tomorrow to clean & washup the RV and do laundry before taking off to Laredo on Sunday.