Around the Big Bend

We returned from Mexico, grabbed dinner with our buddy Alex in Dallas, slept over again at aunt Darlene and uncle Charlie’s (thanks again you two!), then hit the road to the one thing in Texas we decided we had to see before we officially left the state – Big Bend National Park.

It was a good long drive through Texas out to Big Bend National Park. Wearing flowy pants and questioning something about the ethics of bear hunting (it’s a long story we don’t need to get into) got me called “a yogi or something” in Odessa and many comments were made about us needing “a bigger vehicle” (we drive a Prius) as we drove through oil field country. Needless to say, it was an odd drive out.

We arrived in Big Bend with no set plans and were very lucky to get a campsite that Thursday, let alone the rest of the weekend because we completely forgot that it was President’s Weekend and therefore park was at it’s busiest time of the year! More on that in upcoming posts.

Our first impressions of the park was a mess of scale. Everything is so far apart and so large it was hard to put into context. Driving the 26 miles in from the Persimmon Gap entrance we struggled to understand what we were looking at while also avoiding a squadron of javelina (yes, a group of them is called a squadron) on the road as well as deer with huge ears. We laughed at the absurdity, the alien qualities, and the unexpected foreignness. We spent the night at Cottonwood campgrounds, another 35 miles into the park and a mere stones throw from the Mexico border. We decided on a three-day backcountry backpacking trip through the Chisos Mountains along the South Rim trail and the following morning was completely dedicated to organizing food, water, gear and our packs for trip. There’s not much too romantic about counting out rations, calculating calories, protein and carbohydrates but it’s all a necessary part of the experience.