Start of our Texas Vacation - Terlingua area!

Big Bend Ranch State Park - First day - Closed Canyon hike - 25 Apr 2022 

Took our last walk from Tom & Marge's for this season.  Have been enjoying walking past this little privately owned Animal Menagerie every day & finally got some pictures!  Folks are always there feeding the critters.  There are 2 big "Hamish" cows (long haired and presumably Scottish), a camel, 3 zebra (used to be 4), 2 emu, several Al Paca's, lots of goats, a pot bellied pig, several big ganders, & lots of different kinds of chickens & roosters.  It's really quite something!

Left Mesa on Saturday, 23 Apr about 11am.  Overnighted in our favorite spot at the Road Runner Rest Area in Las Cruces, NM.  It was a little smoky, but not bad at all.

Arrived at Maverick RV Park in Terlingua, TX on the 24th, about 5:15pm.  Took a short walk around the park & onto one of the many local trails into the surrounding desert.  Came out about midnight to look at the sky.  This is supposed to be one of the best places world wide to see the night sky & whooee!  It was amazing!!!!  So many bright bright stars that we couldn't locate any constellations.  It was just a bright mass of twinkling stars!  Saw one shooting star.  We're in the middle of the Lyriad meteor shower, so figured we could probably see more, but only stayed out about 20 minutes.  It's amazing for sure!!!

Slept in & had a leisurely morning.  Went to the Barton Warnock Visitor's Center for Big Bend Ranch State Park.  We chatted with the on duty ranger & got a plan to head west on 170 for short stops, view points, & a short hike.

The Contrabando Day Use Movie Site was our first stop.  It had access to the Rio Grande & we could easily have waded across to Mexico.  Water is very shallow.  Apparently this site was used for several movies like Fandango, Streets of Laredo, & even the Lonesome Dove TV series.  Not much there except an abandoned building, but there is river access & we could have crossed over into Mexico (but didn't!!).

Made a short stop at a roadside viewpoint.  Just lovely.  Saw a couple of Mexican ducks floating down the river.

We continued west on 170 & stopped at Closed Canyon hike.  It was about 3/4 mile in & then back.  You traveled through a lovely slot canyon with beautiful rocks & colors surrounding you.  Didn't see much wildlife - several little lizards, a few swallows flying overhead.  We were lucky & it was quite comfortable.  Temps were in the low 70's today.  The rocks were very smooth & there was a continuous downhill slope with several rocky steps that had a little loose shale, so we had to be careful about slipping.  George the mountain goat helped me a bit.  I slipped once & it scared me.  Don't need any injuries!!  Had hoped to see more birds, but only spotted lots of vultures circling overhead, a glimpse of a hummingbird & a small flock of Canyon Towhees.  Lovely walk & it felt good to get outside.  Chatted a bit with a nice couple about our age that was traveling at the same speed as us.  She was a Texan from Austin & he was British, but had gone to school here in West Texas.  This was his first visit back to the US since the start of Covid.  

We decided to call it an early day & came on back for dinner.  After dinner we wandered a little right around the park.  There are small trails throughout the area here.  We finally saw one cactus that seems ready to bloom!  Other than being too windy, it's very pleasant here.  We'll do more tomorrow!