Last year around this time, my husband and I watched some nature show about a national park. I don’t even remember which one it was, but it sparked our curiosity. We talked about national parks that we have always wanted to see, and decided it was time to see a few of them. If not now, then when? Environmental deregulation and the potential for huge border walls put our national treasures at risk, and it felt urgent to see our beautiful, diverse public lands before too long.
It feels impossible to make any sort of “top 10 list” for our trip last year. Each place is big enough for it’s own book, but I will try to do them justice with a humble blog post each. Look forward to each of the 10 parks we visited in 2018 being highlighted in the coming weeks!
Big Bend National Park, Texas
This park located in the Chihuahuan Desert that encompasses much of southwest Texas and northern Mexico. It is well worth the 3 day drive, I promise. Summer is low season, so the park was quite uncrowded. It is also the rainy season, bringing strong afternoon storms and beautiful green desert plants. The daytime sun is very hot near the Rio Grande in the southern part of the park, but the temperature in the Chisos Mountans was much more pleasant.
As with most parks, it’s best to stop in the main visitors center as soon as possible upon entering the park. There, you can pick up an official park map, get the lay of the land, and make a rough plan for how to spend your precious time. This park was similar to most others we have visited, with extremely friendly and helpful rangers. At Big Bend, the main visitors center is Panther Junction. There is a gas station nearby as well, which could be a lifesaver as this park is hours away from the nearest towns.
After checking in at the visitors center, we headed to the Chisos Mountains region of the park, where our preferred campground was located. Sites are first come, first serve during the low season and we hoped for a roomy site big enough for our giant tent. Luckily we had our pick of vacant sites, all with stunning views. The nights in Chisos Basin were just cool enough for sleeping,and even had restrooms with running water, though no showers. Water is a precious resource here, and there are multiple signs reminding campers to use water sparingly. The popular Windows trail was very nearby, with the trailhead visible from our campsite.
After eating an early dinner, we set off on the Window trail, about 1.5 miles one way. A few puffy clouds were in the sunny sky, so we weren’t worried about rain. We were vaguely aware of how powerful storms can be in this wild country, but not quite aware enough to bring rain gear along. About 3/4 of a mile into our hike, the clouds changed from fluffy white to menacing grey with lots of lightning. We turned back, but did so too late to avoid a heavy downpour. We waited out the worst of the rain under the tiniest little bit of roof near the restrooms. Much to our dismay, our tent had almost blown off the mountain during the storm! Thankfully it didn’t blow off the cliff, and miraculously all of our things inside were dry. REI’s Kingdom 6 is an amazing tent to hold up to such severe weather.
This was one of the many situations that we were grateful to have a lodge and restaurant nearby. After changing into dry clothes, we drove the short distance to the nearby Chisos Mountain Lodge and enjoyed a sweet dessert in the warm and dry dining room. Non campers, take notice! This is an amazing place that you can fully experience without camping. We weren’t able to visit any lodge rooms, but we could see that they must have beautiful views.
We spent much of the next day visiting the southern part of the park, near the Rio Grande River and Texas/Mexico border. It is hot, dry and windy in the southern part of the park. A vulture stalked around us while we ate our lunch, creepy but interesting. The Rio Grande campground and village are closed during low season, so nature is the main reason to visit this area. The river forms the actual border between our countries. With the summer rains, the river was muddy and swollen, and looked quite dangerous to cross. In the western part of the park, Santa Elena canyon wall looms from the Mexico side of the river. Humans likely could not build a wall as imposing and permanent as that one. I imagined this formidable natural formation snickering at any sort of wall that certain politicians want to build. We saw at least 3 border patrol vehicles during that day as well. For many reasons, this is already a difficult and dangerous place to cross undocumented in between countries.
Wildlife here is extraordinary. We heard rumors of a mountain lion visiting the campground, though luckily we didn’t meet this majestic animal. We did encounter a tarantula crawling outside our tent, a copperhead snake and a javelina, a really unusual animal that looks like a furry pig.
I hope you find time in your travels to visit this beautiful and surprising place. You will not be disappointed.