Lost in Big Bend

April 24, 2013 

A wonderful first day in Big Bend National Park! We headed out from Marathon late in the morning for the 70-mile scenic drive to the park entrance. It’s a cool, windy, overcast day. We soon begin to see high jagged mountains. 

One of the state historic/geologic roadside markers said that this was the only place in the country where “old” and “young” mountains are seen together. The old ones are supposed to be the same age as our Appalachian mountains back home. The newer ones are volcanic in origin. The scenery is more and more dramatic the farther we drive.

The highest peak is about 8,000 feet. We still have 20 miles to go.

When we reach the park entrance, we are once again reminded of what a great deal the U.S. Park Service Golden Age pass is—you have to be 62 to purchase it and Jack thinks he paid $10 for it years ago. The charge to enter this park: $20 per car. Our charge with Golden Age pass: $0! After we enter the park, we still have about 20 miles or so to get to the first open visitor center, Panther Junction. (This is a BIG park!)

We stop at a marked trail to sightsee and read the display about it. Jack had just remarked that it looked like a swamp to him, and I laughed at him and said I thought a swamp implied lots of water, whereas this was about the driest-looking desert we’d ever seen. The laugh was on me when we read the park display—this site used to be a swamp and they’d found lots of fossils of swamp plants and creatures here. I think Jack had some sort of flashback to the Cretaceous era!

We arrive at the Panther Junction visitor center and I speak to a ranger about the chances of seeing a painted bunting. Unfortunately, many of the migrant birds are late arriving this year, maybe due to the continuing drought and late freezes, and no one has seen any buntings yet! Fooey. However, he tells me which sites are the best spots for seeing them and we head out for the river and some birdwatching, yet another 20 miles down the mountain, at the Rio Grande Visitor Center. 

 

The desert is in bloom,

The terrain certainly changes remarkably in this park. The Rio Grande forms a long and winding oasis in the desert, with trees and green grass, all of which provides excellent bird habitat. The park is not at all crowded, but we do see a number of other birdwatchers around, distinguished by the binoculars and long camera lenses they’re carrying. We get our first close-up view of the Rio Grande, and see a few birds. 

 

Our first sighting of the Rio Grande

Carol looking for fossils on the banks of the Rio Grande

We can hear more in the low shrubs that line the river bank, but can’t catch a glimpse of them yet. Our most memorable bird encounter at this spot is with a turkey vulture (a “buzzard” as we know him) that approaches us very closely while we eat our lunch salad at a picnic table. It’s very windy today and this big bird seems to be waiting for something. Do we look that bad?? Finally we realize that this is a smart bird—a big gust of wind catches both our paper plates and blows our half-eaten lunches onto the ground, and he happily helps himself to a big slice of avocado. Darn! I thought vultures only ate dead stuff. Guess not.

There’s a nice campground here by the river and, although it doesn’t have RV hookups, it has a lot of birds, shade and scenery, so we decide to camp here for the night instead of heading back up the mountain to a town with a regular RV campground. (Our Golden Age pass comes through again: camping fee is half price, only $7!)

After picking out our site and putting our “occupied” card on the post, we decide to drive out for a sunset visit to a hot springs, about 5 or 6 miles away. Jack and I “collect” hot springs, always seeking them out for a soak in our travels. 

 

Jack in hot spring. Rio Grande flows by. Mexico in background.

We’ve soaked in hot springs from New Zealand to Hawaii to California to right back home almost in our backyard in Virginia. Some have been spectacular and some a little bit, well, weird. We’re not sure what to expect from this one and are a little leery of it, but it turns out to be one of the nicest and most scenic we’ve experienced. The drive down is pretty rough and narrow (a washboarded gravel road). We park near several other vehicles and start down the trail where the sign points to “Hot Springs”. It’s about a half mile walk on the trail, leading past some abandoned stone buildings and some Indian pictographs (at least the Park sign said they were pictographs—we couldn’t really tell). The hot spring water is fed into a shallow rock basin—it comes from the ground at 105 degrees F, perfect for sitting. 

Carol taking the plunge.

Several other people are bathing and chatting quietly. The overflow from the hot spring flows right over the edge into the Rio Grande. Mexico is right across the river, marked by a simple tent on a rope that looks as though it’s made from an old bed sheet. The water feels wonderful, and I step down out of the hot spring basin into the river to see how it feels—cool and comfortable. Little minnows dart away from my feet.

It’s a remarkably pleasant spot and the bathers are congenial travelers, with one local lady who comes regularly to enjoy the springs. Finally, we reluctantly dry off and head back to the van so we can get back to our campsite for a little more birdwatching before bedtime. We’re allowed to run our generator only until 8 pm, so when we get back we turn it on to charge up our electronic devices and our battery for our lights tonight.

The prettiest bird we’ve seen so far is the vermilion flycatcher, a jewel of a red bird with an almost infrared-appearing head. He’s common here at the campsite. I’ll provide a list of all the birds we’ve seen so far in the next blog... (no painted bunting yet, sob).

State count: 8 [Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas]

Where we are: