Current Location: The Lost Alaskan RV Park Alpine, Tx
Big Bend National Park is indeed huge. After a couple of stops at the biggest Target ever and Big Bend Brewing, we pulled into Big Bend just before sunset on Saturday night and ended up boon docking/breaking the rules, camping in the backcountry without a permit. We nervously made dinner and slowly became more relaxed as the night went on that a) a park ranger wasn’t going to come by and kick us out of the park and b) we didn’t take a spot from someone who had a permit. In the morning we got up, had breakfast and drove back down to the Castolon Visitor Center.
We made a few stops along the way at Santa Elena Canyon Overlook and the Rio Grande, as well as along the side of the road to check out some javelinas that were having their breakfast along the ridge. - for once the animal I thought I saw was indeed an animal, not just a rock. We had every intention of mentioning we broke the rules the night before, but quickly learned that their system won’t let them go back and log that information. A backcountry permit is $12 and you can plan out anywhere from 1 night to 14 all on the same permit. If you decide to add nights, you need another permit and another $12. With 2 nights booked at a backcountry site, we headed out to explore. Big Bend is a beautiful park- desert filled with tons of cactus and yucca and rugged mountains. There are bears and mountain lions, but we didn’t see any during our stay. We learned that there were a bunch of recent sightings however throughout the park.
A stop at one of the exhibits along Chisos Basin Road and the all too familiar smell of overheating brakes made us rethink our plans. (Having lived near I-70 at the end of the downhill coming from the Colorado mountains, we have smelled our share of overheated brakes.) We wandered around Chisos Basin Visitor Center and store, and did a bit of research for mechanics in the nearby town of Alpine, only 100 miles from the entrance of the park. We wrote down a few numbers to call on Monday morning. We decided to scrap the plan of backcountry camping for the night to limit the amount of downhill/braking we’d have to do and stayed in Chisos Basin Campground.
Not a bad place to watch the Super Bowl.
We spent the afternoon sitting at the covered picnic table at our campsite reading, looking at the park map, or looking through binoculars at the surrounding peaks. While we had to try and block out the conversations of others around us, it was very relaxing to just sit and watch and listen to the world around us. Rooney passed the afternoon napping in the shade and chasing flies as they flew around his nose. Around 5 or so we drove up to the Chisos Mountain Lodge to have a beer and some snacks from the patio with the ‘best views in the park’. The views were indeed spectacular, add the setting sun and a patio full of dirty campers watching the Super Bowl and you have yourself a fun time. We left after halftime and headed back to our campsite to walk Rooney before going to bed. Although the moon was only half full, it lit up the night sky and the mountains surrounding the basin. Not to be outdone by the moon, the stars also put on a spectacular show.
The alarm went off at 6:15. As we got up and started moving, we saw we were among like-minded people- get up and breakdown camp as quick as possible so we can head out to see sunrise from … (insert an awesome location in the park here) The sun rose as we drove the 30+ miles to the hot springs along the Rio Grande. There were 2 other trucks already in the parking lot at 8am.
We passed one woman on our way in, and another woman was there with us for only a few minutes after we arrived. A quarter mile hike in and we had the place to ourselves - pretty impressive for a popular spot. The pool is about 30 yards by 20 yards in a little rock pool in the Rio Grande, not 40 yards from Mexico. As we were thinking about leaving, a fellow dirt bagger arrived. We chatted him up a bit- he had been kayaking down the river the day before. He said the pool was full at about noon when he passed.
From there, we continued our drive to Boquillas Canyon Overlook and the Rio Grande Village, just past Boquillas Crossing, the only border crossing within the park. We stopped in the ranger station and picked the ranger’s brain about the area. A 10 minute drive up the road, and we found the pullout the park employees use to make phone calls- one of a very few spots in the park with cell service. We set up an appointment to have brakes replaced on Wednesday. The rest of the afternoon was spent in our backcountry camp at Pine Canyon. We decided it was the most scenic place in the park. The mountains around us lit up in pinks, purples and oranges at sunset. After a hot afternoon, the evening cooled off and a breeze picked up just before sunrise at 7:30ish. I could get very used to waking up to watch the sunrise at 7:30am.
We decided we’d spend some time at the Rio Grande Village catching up on some tasks- updating the blog and instagram, researching why our van decided to have some dashboard icons illuminate on our drive out from camp, as well as utilizing the showers! Fellow campers came and went as we sat at the picnic tables. Shower, check email, read a book, some did laundry. We set up the solar panel and had the sun do some work for us charging the GoalZero battery we run the fridge off of. Our drive out of the park back towards civilization was not without its own excitement. The check engine light had been on since we had a hard-start this morning. At one point about 75 miles from Alpine, the battery light illuminated and we watched the battery gauge slowly drop only to have the light turn off and the gauge return to a normal level. We continued to press on, watching our phones for the return of cell service. The battery light returned, the gauge began to drop. All gauges dropped and the van decided it didn’t want to run anymore. Ride it out as long as we can…the closer we get to the highway, the less we have to get towed. The van sprang back to life what seemed to be a few minutes later- all gauges were back, we had some giddy up, (not much, but some) and the ‘limp-home’ light disappeared. Nervously we watched the dashboard and our phones for service. We made it into Alpine and the RV park, with a huge sigh of relief. We’ll see what tomorrow brings… At least we’ll have new brakes.
L