The Big Bend

In Texas everything is big. That includes Big Bend National Park, which is larger than the state of Rhode Island. The park gets its name from the big bend from south to north that the Rio Grande River makes on the border of Texas and Mexico.

The park, which is located in a remote area of southwestern Texas, is one of the least visited national parks. Its features are carved by an unusual and striking combination of mountains, river, and desert.

The mountain ranges thrust up dramatically from the desert floor, revealing mineral deposits and layers of various geologic eras.









In the center of the park the Chisos Mountains rise around a natural basin, with a "window" that opens to other mountain ranges in the desert. The aerial photo (not ours) shows the unique formation of the basin.



Although the Rio Grande River winds somewhat lazily at the southern border of the park, it has cut some deep and impressive canyons.



The most spectacular canyon is the Santa Elena Canyon. We visited it before sunset and again the next morning, an hour after sunrise.

The aerial photo (obviously not ours) shows the cut of the 1500-foot canyon along its 11-mile length. In the evening we talked with six canoers who had paddled through the canyon, risking the Rock Slide Rapids and capsizing several times.

Bas was able to hike into the canyon and said it was by far the best hike of our entire trip to this point.

The vast desert in the park is home to javelinas. We saw a number of these very strange animals but the photos we took were from too great a distance so we include this one from the Web.

Thankfully we did not see some of the other creatures that live in the park.

Ironically, in the parched desert, we saw signs indicating the flash flood levels when the few inches of rains do fall on the mountains and run off into the plains.







When we left Big Bend National Park, we drove on the Texas Mountain Trail over some of the most wild-and-scenic roadways of the trip. 

As we ascended and descended on roads with steep 15% grades (!) and roller-coaster dips, we passed through a ghost mining town, a movie set, and a valley with hoodoos and balanced rock. We also had some spectacular vistas of the Rio Grande River.In some places, the Rio Grande was only 50 feet across. It was strange to be so close to Mexico and easy to see how hard it is to guard the U.S. border along this meandering and shallow river.