DAY 124 : November 8/22 Tuesday. Big Bend National Park, TX

 Jonathan had decided he would get up early this morning and do the Nature Trail walk for sunrise. True to his word, he was up by 6am and had made a coffee on the outside stove and went for his early morning walk to view the sun rising over the mountains. On this excursion, he saw a Mexican man on horseback wading across the river to collect the burros that had been wandering in the park through the night. Jay said he gathered them up and led them down to the river and all the burrows seemed to know they had to go home and they just walked across the shallower section back into Mexico. That also explained how a lot of the merchandise probably got brought over into the park on the Boquillas Canyon trail. He heard cool bird songs and lots of coyote yipping. He said there were a few other people there to watch the sunrise. It sounded like a pretty special thing... and a stunning sun rising over the spectacular landscape and lighting up the sky with pinks and oranges. 

When he got back to our rig, he asked if anyone wanted to walk over and see if any javelinas were out and about by our new friend's campsite. Everyone was into what they were doing (Amelia doing art, Ollie sleepy and I was blogging), so he walked over on his own and saw a few of the little rascally beasts! He was the only person in our family to see them in the wild, and he didn't hesitate to remind us, haha. Serves us right, lazy bones. While he was over there, he had chatted with Amy and Nick and had invited their girls to come over and do some art with Amelia and Ollie after their breakfast. 

We had coffee and breakfast and the girls came over to hang out and do art while Nick and Amy finished packing up their van. Eloise and Aster happily chatted away and drew pictures in the rig at our table with Ollie and Meems. At 9:30am we walked them back to their campsite and we exchanged contact information. Sounded like they would be driving through Vancouver at some point on their way up to Alaska and we offered them use of our showers and laundry on their way through :)

By 10:15am we were rolling out of our campsite (we packed up everything even though we have the site again tonight... just not sure where we'd end up since the park is so massive and we hoped to get to the other side by this evening). We dumped the sani and refilled water on our way out.

 

At 11am we popped into the Rio Grande Village Visitor Centre for Amelia to stamp her Junior Ranger booklet with its stamp, then it was back on the road and through the tunnel again. Saw another coyote on the side of the road as we drove. Each corner we curved around, Jonathan would shout, "Hold on to your Javelinas!!!!" so they kids would grab anything that might slide off the table as we turned. 

Back to Panther Junction again! Jonathan bought a rather morbidly fascinating book called, "Death and Rescue in Big Bend". We once again used the wifi there to connect with AirBnB and our guest about shortening their stay in our home. Jonathan was an absolute champ at dealing with it all. While we were doing this, the kids were "booooored"... and we suggested that as we were dealing with some important stuff, perhaps they'd go back to the rig and make themselves a snack. Better yet, make us a snack too. We sent them off with the keys just across the small parking lot. It wasn't too long that we walked over and they were mid-prep of what looked to be a lovely lunch. Their faces were SO GLUM though. We clued in that we probably spoiled a surprise, and so we said we were just going to walk and check out the cactus garden for a bit and would be back in a few minutes. (it was just beside the visitor centre). 

1:15pm : When we returned, we had happier kiddos... they not only prepared a delicious tuna salad with peppers and lettuce, they had chocolate drizzled strawberries! They had set up a lovely little table and two chairs behind the other side of the rig in the shade for us to eat. LOVE!!!! We enjoyed our little feast in the shade of the Rig :)

Loaded up again and headed to the Ross Maxwell drive - a scenic drive through the vast landscape towards the other side of the park. By 2pm we were at the Upper Burrow Mesa Pouroff trail. We hiked until 4:45pm... it felt like quite a different hike from yesterday. This was a more open desert that went into a canyon further along. The substrate along much of the walk was loose peagravel/sand mix and was more tiring to walk along. The exposure in the desert section was also much hotter until we reached the cooler shades of the canyon. We saw two vermillion flycatchers on the trail! never seen those before, so that was cool. 

The canyon was really neat with a scary overlook where the canyon rocks kinda slid down into one another into a small chamber (kids liked sliding down the smooth rock into the cavern)... but the pouroff section of it was very disconcerting. It was a looooooong drop down to the lower burro trail. Imagining a flash flood coming through there was very creepy. We admired it from a safe distance and then played around on the "slides" of the boulder before hiking back. 

Clump of feathers found on the side of the trail from a not-so-lucky bird. And a canyon wren nest we came across. 

Piggy backs by daddy on the way back for the last stretch as little legs got weary and moods were turning. I had the "Skittles Store" open for business as well during the last portion of the hike back to the parking lot. Every few minutes I'd offer a skittle for a kiss, haha. Kept the moving a little. 

Back at the rig, we drove to Castalon Visitor Centre (5pm) to see if Amelia could get the stamp for her Junior Ranger booklet, but it was closed by 4pm. Then drove along to Santa Elena Canyon overlook at 5:30pm... no one else there. The light was fading fast. We had our reservation over at the complete other side of the park (2hrs drive) at Rio Grande Village, but were hoping we could camp the night at Cottonwood Campground by Santa Elena.

We got to Cottonwood Campground in the dark around 6:30pm (named for the Cottonwood trees in the area). They have 23 primitive sites (no water or electric) and we didn't see a ranger truck anywhere to ask. We drove around the site and found one with no tag on it and pulled up, deciding that we'd make dinner and if asked, we'd explain our situation and hope we could stay!

Jonathan cleared out all the stuff from our shower and had a quick shower in the rig. I was feeling anxious that a Ranger would come and kick us out and wouldn't have Jonathan to charm his way out of the situation, haha. I had a shower too and then made a quick pasta dinner. Jonathan had a walk and found a ranger to chat with and they were super cool about it all and since that site wasn't booked, we were welcome to stay for the night. All the bookings are done strictly online (and no same-day bookings), but because we had a site booked in Rio, it was like a straight swap for us. 

Relieved to be able to stay without being kicked out (there's no where else to pull over and camp in the park) and having to drive 2 hours in the pitch black over to Rio. 

After dinner we had a little walk to admire the bright night sky, looking for Jupiter and Saturn and the constellations. Jonathan rinsed the kiddos off in the shower with cool water (it was warm from the hike and we had no A/C option to cool the rig down). 

Jonathan read some grim stories from his Death & Rescue in Big Bend book. By 8:30pm we gave Ollie and Meems mister/fan treatments to cool them down and have them run outside while damp to cool off before climbing into bed. xo

Amelia touched up Daddy's pedicure as well!