Thursday February 15th
Off to Big Bend National Park.
Big Bend is a beautiful place with great hiking but dogs are only allowed where cars can drive so no hiking with them unless you are on a paved or dirt road.
Stopped at panther Junction to get camping permit for the primitive road camp sites but all was full and we would need to stay over night outside the park! Presidents day weekend ugh…
Primitive camping in Big Bend is first come first serve where you get a two week window for 12$ where the ranger at Panther Junction will tell you what sites are available on what day’s and you can pick the night and locations you want.
We did pay and get assigned Gravel pit 3 for one night then 2 nights at Paint gap 2 (dispersed campgrounds, dry camping).
Since nothing available the night we arrived so they send people like us to Stillwell ranch or Terlingua which is just outside of NW park entrance. We ended up at Terlingua Resort in parking lot type place for the night.
The people running it where real nice and there are some nice walks out back of the park and dogs did get to run a bit.
To burn some time for the afternoon we drove over from the camp ground to the Terlingua Ghost Town which contained a store, bar/theater, an art gallery and coffe shop and some old adobe ruins.
Very interesting place to stop with a certain desert counter culture vibe to it.
In front of the art gallery is a molten metal slag heap of gears etc melted together from an oil well fire.
Friday February 16th we did driving tour. Left Terlingue and went back into park. Immediate SW took Old Maverick dirt road after entering park down to St Elena Canyon (made by Rio Grande, 1500 foot cliffs).
The road was well graded and any car could travel it.
On the way we stopped at a marker for Luna’s Jacal where Gilberto Luna lived, pretty amazing he lived to 108. Very primitive and makes you think of the huge disparity of all the things we think we need verses what you actually require.
At Santa Elena Canyon Trail Took 1.6 mile hike into canyon (no dogs).
The trail starts on the US side of the Rio Grand, with Mexico on the far side, and winds up the canyon wall to the right.
We then drove on the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive and saw Mule Ear and had lunch at an overlook.
Then went back out to the main drag Hwy 118 past Panther Junction to SE edge of park near Rio Grande Village and took walk to Boquillas Canyon which was another short hike.
You will find Mexican wire art and walking sticks left by Mexican’s for sale in little piles on the trail where you can purchase by leaving money in can next to items. Park Service does not want you to buy of course.
Then drove to our Gravel Pit 3 camp down river road then gravel pit road. Ended up being pretty nice as we could walk down to river. DOOnt let the Gravel Pit name put you off, would say this was a lot nicer than what we saw at Pain Gap. Dogs had a swim, saw a Mexican horse but no illegal immigrants ?. Had Calm night (No fire) but I heard someone in middle of night drive up which scared me a bit…just someone camping I guess.
Saturday Feburary 17th: Drove to Chisos Basin from Gravel Pit and had a long range view from road of mountains the basin is in.
When you get to the high point of Chisoc Basin Road you get a view down in to the basin where the camp ground is. The entry to camp ground is on the right once you descend in to the basin.
We were lucky and the camp hosts gave us a site that some had reserved and had not shown up and found a campsite as we got there around 12pm. This is a very pretty camp ground with pretty good privacy for how crowded it is. Also a great place to take guest hikes from since multiple trail heads are within walking distance.
Then hiked to the Window trail that start right in camp ground.
Illegal hike in afternoon with dogs from campground to lodge and Alex had a drink.
Lots of small rental units around the lodge for rent with many nationalities from around the world taking advantage of them.
Then went to check out our Paint Gap camp which had a nice view of the outside of the basin but was a dust pit with no cell service. Decided to drive on to Lajitas and stayed in Lajitas Golf Resort campground. It was ok…just had soup and went to bed.