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Day #1: Big Bend National Park
Location: Big Bend National Park, South of Marathon & Alpine, TX
Date: Saturday, October 13, 2001
Weather: Severe storms, giving way to sunny blue skies & breezy
Activities: Camping, hiking, photography, wildlife watching, stargazing, relaxing
Submitted by: Shannon Moore
Pre-Trip Planning
 During the summer of 2001, Justin and I began surfing Big Bend-related websites to familiarize ourselves with the region. Several co-workers also loaned us copies of their brochures, maps and guidebooks, including Laurence Parent's "must have" Hiking Big Bend National Park guidebook. Since we prefer to let our spirits guide us, we didn't use the guide for planning which trails to hike until we had reached the park. Once there, Parent's guide proved immensely useful and a good companion to the National Park Service brochures we purchased at the Chisos Basin Visitor Center.
Renting a Pop-Up
Justin and I wanted to do something different for our Big Bend trip, and having purchased a 2001 Ford F-150 SuperCrew 4x4 pickup earlier in the year, we were finally equipped to tow a camper. Friends who had spent some time camping with a rented pop-up camper suggested we look at the selection offered by American Dream Vacations in Boerne, Texas. Impressed with the selection and prices during our August 2001 visit, we reserved a 2001 Viking Legend pop-up camper for Big Bend. The cost of our rental was quite reasonable -- an initial deposit of $200 when we reserved the unit was refunded when we returned the unit undamaged; our total out-of-pocket expense for the camper rental for 7 days was $500.50. Not too shabby!
Departure
We picked up our rented pop-up on Friday, October 12, intending to depart for Big Bend around 1 AM on October 13. Our early departure time was intended to minimize nighttime driving on the unfamiliar and desolate roads of West Texas to which we were heading, but still get us to the park with the bulk of a day to enjoy there. Mother Nature had slightly different plans, however. At 1:30 AM, severe storms -- hail, constant lightning and wind-driven rain -- had not yet eased, so we went back to bed until 3 AM. It was still raining when we awoke, but lessening, so we loaded the rest of our gear into the pickup. After learning that backing up from a driveway with a trailer attached takes a different stearing method than we're accustomed to, we left our house at 3:33 AM. We reached I-10, the road most of our journey would take us on, at 4 AM. Justin figured it'd take us about 7 hours to reach Big Bend National Park from our home in far Northwest San Antonio.
En Route
- 5:20 AM: We fueled up the pickup in Junction, just past the three South Llano River State Park exits. The weather was still throwing intermittent heavy rain at us.
- 5:40 AM: Fort Stockton is less than 197 miles away. The rain stopped, and the temperature was 55 degrees.
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8:12 AM: Gorgeous weather broke through from the rains. Located outside of Bakersfield, Texas there's a giant wind farm on the mesas. The only sign we saw was for "Indian Mesa Wind Farm", and I felt certain we could find more information upon returning home, judging by the farm's size. Of note: All electricity generated at Indian Mesa (enough to power 54,000 homes) is sold to City Public Service, the municipal electric utility owned by the city of San Antonio. Enron, the former owners of the Indian Mesa Wind Farm, recently sold it to American Electric Power of Columbus, Ohio in a deal unrelated to Enron's eventual spectacular collapse.
At the time we saw the farm, it was still being expanded -- some of the windmills were not yet outfitted with the three-prong blades. The farm was completed in late December 2001 and now boasts more than 100 wind turbines, each of which is 165 feet tall with individual blades over 80 feet long. Also located here -- some oil derricks (most inoperative) and a very strong sulfur smell.
- 8:44 AM: Refueled the truck again, this time in Fort Stockton. We're getting 11 miles per gallon, due to towing the pop-up trailer. Before leaving, we found a McDonald's and stopped in for a quick breakfast like so many other road-weary travellers. The weather was sunny and breezy with a temperature of 48 degrees.
- 9:16 AM: On the road again, headed to Marathon (58 miles away) and then -- Big Bend National Park (127 miles away).
- 10:32 AM: We just passed a very attractive peak named Santiago Peak (6,521 feet in elevation). From our vantage point, there was not much to the city of Marathon; to be fair, though, we exited the roadway 1 mile prior to entering Marathon.
Arrival, Big Bend NP!
- 10:45 AM: We both got out and photographed the Big Bend National Park entrance sign ("A U.S. Biosphere Reserve"). We are now officially in Big Bend National Park, a little over 7 hours after leaving San Antonio. Justin's estimate was spot on, as usual!
- The ranger at the park entrance station provided us with a free, self-guided tour brochure of Persimmon Gap Drive entitled, "Big Bend: Along the Comanche Trail, Persimmon Gap to Panther Junction," that highlights interesting sites or information for each mile marker (all 26 of them) from the entrance station to the park headquarters and visitor station in Panther Junction, located about halfway into the park. Spotting mile-markers and having a passenger read the tour brochure description for that marker is an ideal way to pass the time, and the park's 45 mph speed limit, of these 26 miles. During our visit, the Persimmon Gap Visitor Center (over 40 miles from Marathon, TX) was closed; when it's open, you have the opportunity to stop there and check in, rather than travelling all the way to Panther Junction.
Excerpts from the free Persimmon Gap Drive brochure, courtesy the U.S. National Park Service:
- "PERSIMMON GAP. Named for the Mexican Persimmon trees growing here, Persimmon Gap is an ancient place. Almost 300 million years ago, this area was a great mountain range.... In the hills across the road from the (Persimmon Gap) visitor center [the exposed rock is] .... the oldest rock in the park!"
- "MILE MARKER #20. In 1535, prior to settlement, the Spanish adventurer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca is credited with being the first European to visit the Big Bend Country. The Spanish had a name for such an area -- despoblado, or unpopulated land. // Today, Big Bend National Park hosts more than 300,000 visitors a year, but its land and climate can be unyielding....Remember, Big Bend is still a wild land and you are on nature's terms here."
- "MILE MARKER #17.... Over 1,200 species of plants are found here. Because the land and climate can be uncompromising, life forms have adapted in remarkable ways. // What color are the plants around you? Most are light shades of green. Dark colors absorb too much heat, so a strategy for plants to survive in the desert is to be light colored."
-- This is a good tip for visitors wondering what color clothing to pack, as well! - Shannon
- "MILE MARKER #13. How far can you see? Air quality is a major resource issue at Big Bend National Park. Some days you may not be able to see as far as your ancestors did....look straight ahead on the distant horizon for a triangular shaped mountain. Named San Vincente Mountain, it is 40 miles away in Mexico and on a clear day is quite visible. However, because of sulfer and nitrogen oxides, and particulate pollution, San Vincente Mountain is obscured 58% of the time in summer. On some days of the year the air quality is so poor that even the Chisos Mountains, 14 miles away, are lost in a haze of pollution."
-- During our visit, the air quality was quite good. The only time distant peaks were obscured was after a cold front blew in and stirred up an incomprehensible amount of desert DUST! - Shannon
- "MILE MARKER #4. At the base of the Chisos Mountains you can see Panther Junction. Not only the park's headquarters, Panther Junction is also the main residential area for employees and their families. // As a large national park, Big Bend employs rangers in resource management, law enforcement, interpretation, administration, and maintenance. The Big Bend community also includes concession employees, postal workers, school teachers, volunteers, and Border Patrol agents...."
-- We even saw a UPS truck way out here. I wonder how long it takes to complete THAT route! - Shannon
- 12:06 PM: We reached the Panther Junction Visitor Center and stopped briefly to inquire about check-in procedures for our campsite in Rio Grande Village, located on the southeastern edge of the park. Campsites in Rio Grande village are "self check-in", or at least they were at the time of our visit (might be different during peak visitation, like Spring Break).
- Photographers' Note: Great Chisos Mountains photo opp at the gravel pullout between mile markers 6 & 7 heading from Panther Junction to Rio Grande Village.
- We continued on to Rio Grande Village and realized we had, indeed, chosen an ideal place to spend our week in Big Bend National Park. The drive to Rio Grande Village is one of the most beautiful areas of the park. Between the verdant plant life on the shores of the Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River, the majestic and multi-colored beauty of Mexico's Sierra del Carmens and (opposite them) the spired and wild Chisos Mountains, you have something very much approaching my idea of heaven on Earth in terms of beauty and the power to inspire. Every single drive back to Rio Grande Village during our trip was wonderful, and made me quite glad we had chosen to camp in this area of the park. In terms of creature comforts, Rio Grande Village offers not only a campground, but also a store, gas station (the only other one in the park is just past Panther Junction), pay phones, landromat, showers and a tree-canopied picnic area. In terms of creatures, the Rio Grande Village is the best year-round birding locale in the park -- where else does a greater roadrunner serve as the campground's welcoming committee? -- and also offers good viewing opportunities for javelina, desert cottontail and other species.
Well, THAT Was Fun!
- Sometime Later: After driving around the Rio Grande Village Campground several times with our camper still in tow, scouting our perfect campsite, we decided on campsite #7 -- great view, great tree coverage and within walking distance of a hiking trail and restroom.
Being first-timers to both "trailer towing" and pop-up campers, it took us an embarrassingly long time to get the pop-up camper unhitched from our F-150 SuperCrew. In our defense, we need at least a 3" drop hitch due to the clearance on Justin's 4x4 pickup, and the drop hitch we borrowed from American Dream Vacations (because ours was even less optimal) was only a 2" drop hitch. We were, no doubt, part of the evening's entertainment for some of our fellow RV and trailer campers as we struggled to get the pickup and camper unhitched. And don't even get me started on the fun we had with the braces on the aft and forward slide-out sleeper sections of the trailer. Suffice it to say, we knew the braces weren't properly attached when the slide-out dropped at least 6 inches while I was lying on it, inside the camper, trying to stow our sleeping bags! While the guys at American Dream Vacations had done a fine job of showing us how to set up and break down the camper, clearly they had made it look a little TOO easy!
- 6:27 PM: Finally all settled in at our campsite. The trailer is surprisingly well-appointed and roomy, particularly compared to our usual camping accommodations (a 3-person, 3-season Sierra Designs Meteor Light CD tent). We have a fabulous view of the Sierra del Carmen Mountains right from our picnic table.
- At Sunset: We visited the Boquillas Canyon/ Boquillas, Mexico Overlook -- it's an ideal sunset spot with good Rio Grande and Sierra del Carmen photo possibilities and lots of cacti. There is a hiking trail located 1 mile from overlook which we intend to hike during our stay. The trail is 3/4 mile and takes visitors into the mouth of narrow Boquillas Canyon (means little mouths in Spanish).
- After Dark: After getting situated for our first night in Big Bend National Park, we cooked dinner (canned soup, a camping staple) in the trailer on my backpacking stove. The scenic main section of Rio Grande Village Campground where we (and most visitors) are staying does not have RV hook-ups, so our camper served as a base station while we used our normal camping gear for cooking and cleaning. It's worthy of note, however, that the Viking Legend we rented had not only a sink and stovetop, but also a chemical toilet, small refrigerator and (very) small shower.
- 9:45 PM: The javelinas we saw in the campground throughout the day are very curious and hungry, but not aggressive. The bats that start flying around at dusk are similarly innocuous, but a little startling at first -- they fly surprisingly low, doing bombing runs on anyone and anything as they search for insects.
We heard some owls while looking at the AMAZING VIEW OF THE SKY -- the Milky Way stretches from horizon to horizon, and we observed several meteors and artificial satellites. It's a "new moon", so we are blessed with no moonlight for the entire duration of our trip, making for superb night sky viewing -- I am very much looking forward to that!
After having been awake since 3 AM back in San Antonio, we were exhausted this evening. In the morning, Justin and I plan to scout morning photo opportunities near the campground and do our first hike. The nature trail just down the road from our campsite is amazing; we took a quick glimpse of it at dusk this evening and it's a boardwalk-covered spring fed pond with mountains behind it; there's something a little surreal about the place, given the knowledge that you're in a desert and shouldn't be seeing such things! The campground is very quiet now; sounds of crickets and hushed human voices, and the winds are calm. The desert temperature range is much wider than I'm used to -- it's chilly now and my nose is numb, so I look forward to crawling into my sleeping bag now!
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