Epic 20 Year Wedding Anniversary Trip...Big Bend National Park...August 29 (Day 4)

(Kim's Perspective)
Not even remotely content to stay at the swampfest that was Rio Grande Village RV Campground, we decided we would try our luck with other camping options in the park.  For the record, we hate RV campgrounds and we knew that this one would be awful, but we were fully committed to sucking it up and staying there in order to be able to hook up and run the AC while the temperatures soared into the high 90s and low 100s.  But, here's the thing...the weather was freakishly cool and overcast for this time of year and was virtually perfect at the higher elevations.  For a little background, there is nearly a 6,000 foot difference in elevation from the river to the highest point in the Chisos and the temperatures in the mountains are generally 15-20 degrees cooler than at the river.  If we could find a camping spot in the higher elevations, there was a high probability that we could bear the temps, and as long as we didn't cook the cat inside the trailer, we were willing to suffer a bit of personal discomfort to go someplace nicer. 

We woke at 5:30am by the loudest and most disorganized Class A campers we've ever seen.  After an hour of them banging and clunking and their diesel rig rumbling, they finally hooked up their "toad" and pulled away.  Sadly, their exit was even louder than their departure preparations - because they had the parking brake engaged on their toad.  Bill and I got out of the camper and watched, er, listened as they dragged their vehicle, wheels locked and tires screaming, behind them for the entire length of the paved camping facility.  We just looked at each other and shook our heads.  We went back inside, prepped for departure and then rolled out of the camp-lot right at 7:30am and headed to Panther Junction.

When we arrived, the visitor center wasn't open so we chatted with a guy named Patrick and his recently blinded dog Vince (sniff, sniff).  He was tent camping and got soaked in the downpour last night.  He was also a fellow motorcyclist that did a lot of dirt riding in the area.  Since we had time to kill, we invited him to breakfast in the camper (ah, the convenience of dragging a house behind you).  He said he was disappointed to decline, but he had friends he was meeting for breakfast in Terlingua so we parted ways and went inside to whip up our omelets.  After breakfast, the visitor center finally opened so we made our way in, chatted with the ranger about camping options, watched the park video, bought some mementos, and scored some free NPS Centennial Celebration patches the Ranger slipped us after hearing my disappointment about the overwhelming lack of centennial swag.

We previously decided we wanted to try Government Springs, a dispersed camping spot we read about in our research (thank you, Wynns!!).  The Ranger on duty kept talking about how muddy it was from all the rain over the last week and how it was unlikely we would be able to pull the camper without getting stuck.  She agreed to let us drop the trailer in the parking lot for the day so we could go check it out and also drive up to the Chisos Lodge area (where trailers over 20' were not recommended). 

She gave us a signed note to put in the window and we made our way outside to unhook the trailer from the truck.  On our way to the camper, we were detoured when Bill saw a guy with his dog, "Bear", a Belgian Malinois guard dog.  Despite the guy's warnings, I knelt down and Bear came over and gave me a big kiss on the face.  And my eyes filled with tears.  I really miss the Boys and nothing tugs on my heartstrings more than unsolicited affection from a dog.  Ouch.

There was a fair bit of cloud cover forecast for the day, the temps were cool, and there was a hearty wind blowing, so we left Lane in the camper and made our way towards the dispersed camping area.  We chuckled when we drove to it - the road was in better shape than our driveway.  Apparently, Texans don't understand what real mud is.  We agreed this would be a phenomenal spot to camp, so we jumped back in the truck and, well within the road's recommended length sans trailer, we made our way to the Chisos Basin area to see what there was to see. 

We were blown away as the scenery unfolded before our eyes.  The Chisos Mountain range (the only mountain range contained wholly in a National Park) was quite the sight to behold.  Sure, the Rocky Mountains may be nearly twice as tall, but the elevation of the surrounding areas are roughly 6,000 to 8,000 feet, so the contrast was just as stark in the Chisos (Rio Grande Village is 1,850 feet above sea level).  We pulled over to take a few pics...

As we continued on, we encountered this poor, wretched coyote pup just sitting in the road.  I have no idea what was wrong with him, but healthy he was not.  So sad.

Heading towards the Basin, the road tightens up and the speed limit drops to allow for the bears to cross safely.  :)

We wanted to check out the campground on the off chance that they were exaggerating the 20' trailer limit (they were not - we would need a much, much smaller rig to ever camp here), and then made our way to the lodge area.  The Visitor Center was closing for lunch, so we quickly left and went to the camp store/gift shop and picked up a few items - a new "Big Bend" purse for me - wooohooo! - and a Texas straw hat for Bill :).  We walked along the Window View Trail which was a short, paved path that led to an incredible overlook of The Window.  The view from that spot was surreal and was "Grand Canyonesque" with the oil painting back drop effect.  The waterfall dropping down the side of the mountain wasn't shabby either.

 

After our walk, we headed back to the visitor center and bought a Chisos Basin Trails map and then tossed on our packs to hike the Chisos Basin Loop trail.

It was a short 1.9 mile loop, but I snapped loads of photos and was really enjoying investigating all the cool plants....

 

....and the cool critters.....

...or the evidence of cool critters...

 Does anyone else see Saphira here?

The views were amazing as we slowly plodded along...

 

 

I fell in love with the "Century Plant", a Havard Agave that only blooms once in its lifetime and takes nearly 50 years for the stalks to reach their mature height.  I'm not sure why it's called a century plant, maybe because by the time it grows, blooms, and dies, it'll be a century before you see a plant produced from its seed bloom again.  Regardless, I think it's pretty freaking cool, despite how unenthused I may look (patiently waiting for Bill to figure out how to use the camera). lol

After our hike, we were quite hungry, so we decided to have a late lunch at the Lodge.  They had a soup and salad bar buffet which was really nice so we both had salad and, after a very surprisingly satisfying lunch, we headed back to Panther Junction to pick up the trailer (and Kitteh!) and get our backcountry camping permit.  We arrived a little before they were getting ready to close, so we quickly bought our permit ($12!) to camp at Government Springs for the next 5 nights.  It doesn't get much cheaper than that.  :)  BTW....the $12 permit is actually good for 14 days.  This is why we have a trailer and why we can travel all over the country every year and be able to afford 2 or 3 week long vacations.  Unlike most everyone else we know, we don't have to fork over a hundred bucks a night for a hotel room or drop a grand for a week long condo rental.  We paid cash for our trailer, but it's paid for itself 10 times over with the literally hundreds of nights we've spent in it.  I love the camping life. :D

We hooked up and drove to the camping area and jockeyed the trailer into the perfect position to avoid the need to level the rig.  We walked around a bit just gazing at the surrounding scenery.  This, by far, was the best campsite ever.  No, really, it was.  We've camped A LOT and have hundreds of campsites under our belts and this, by far, no questions asked, was the best site we've ever had.  Have I mentioned how awesome it was? 

Even Lane seemed really happy with it.

  I took a few panoramas....

while Bill investigated the contents of the bear box and found this...

I'm really not sure what the purchaser was thinking when they put a completely untouched burger in a hot metal box, but we decided that it would be in our best interest to dispose of it post haste.  Since we still had a few hours of daylight left, we decided to drive into Terlingua to get some batteries (we weren't allowed to use the generator so would be relying heavily on our battery operated LED lights to get us through the next 5 days) and to check out a restaurant that Bill wanted to investigate.  We also wanted to check out some RV camping options in Lajitas in case the weather didn't support our sans-electric camping plan.  The scenery was captivating, and the Ocotilla plants were brilliant green and thriving after the recent desert rains.

Terlingua, a Ghost Town, is the birth place of all chili cookoffs everywhere.  Who knew?

It's also just straight up weird...

 ...but I liked some of the cool, old stuff they had sitting around...

 ...and I do appreciate their sense of humor...

 ....I would totally buy this as a vacation rental property...

The Starlight Theatre (notice the chairs - bwwaaahahaaa!)...

We weren't hungry since we'd eaten late and it wouldn't have mattered had we been - only the bar was open while they were remodeling the restaurant.  We read the menu that was posted and recognized the description of the "Diablo Burger" that was left in the bear box at our campsite.  It indeed sounded tasty, but having seen it in its death throes, it somehow made it less desirable.  We hopped back in the truck and headed back to the campsite.  It was dark by the time we returned "home", and we spent the rest of the night star gazing - something we both had very much been looking forward to doing since we decided on Big Bend as our Epic destination.  :)  It's so beautiful here.  I can't WAIT to do the Emory Peak Hike!!  It's going to be AMAZING!!