BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK REDUX - SUNDAY FAVORITES

 

Recently I came across this nice post-sharing site called  Sunday Favorites.  A blogger, Chari,  created it to share old favorite posts that might otherwise be forgotten.  Seems like a great idea.  So I'm reposting this one to remind myself and everyone else to watch the Ken Burns series "The National Parks" which starts on PBS the end of September.  And because we loved our 2006 visit to Big Bend, one of the more remote places we've stayed.  Click on National Parks in the the right-hand Category column to see posts on some of the other National Parks we've been lucky to visit.  These are all some of our favorite places and we can't wait to watch the PBS series.

It would be fun someday to say we'd visited all of our National Parks.   Even if we don't ever get to all of them, we are glad to have spent time in the most remote and least visited one in the lower 48 states.  This is Big Bend in southwest Texas.   There are 800,000 acres within the Park's boundaries.  The scenery provides wonderful contrasts.  It is in the Chihuahuan Desert, surrounded by the Chisos Mountains. 

The Rio Grande River forms an international boundary along the south edge of the park (for 118 miles).  The River is narrow and you can see Mexico on the other side.  We really hope that by the time our grandchildren get to visit the park they will still be able to see this view instead of a fence or wall.

We hiked down the spectacular Boquillas Canyon.  It's a narrow section formed by the River when it meandered through the desert eons ago. 

The river level was low when we were there and we easily explored the bottom of the canyon by foot. 

Before 9/11 there was a soft crossing here into the Mexican village of Boquillos Del Carmen.    Tourists could be ferried across the river and experience a bit of what was like to live in a remote village in Mexico.  That's no longer possible because of security concerns.  By road, the village is 100 miles from the nearest legal crossing to the US, so these changes have almost completely cut off the village's source of income other than subsistance farming.  While security is certainly a problem at some more metropolitan border cities (such as El Paso), it is hard to imagine how it could really be so serious way out here. 

Vendors still wade across when they can get away with it, keeping an eye out for Border Patrol.  The stand shown here is on the Mexican side of the river. We purchased these walking sticks.  Made from stalks of the sotol plant which grows wild everywhere, they are light and quite strong.

Humans have lived in the park area since prehistoric times.  The little dwelling in the picture below is called Luna's Jacal.  It is a rare remaining example of a building from the region's early settlement period.  Luna was a Mexican sheepherder and he and his wife raised a large family (10 or 11 children) in this house.  A jacal is a type of dwelling with upright posts chinked with mud.  It had a thick mud roof that kept it cool in the desert heat.  You can see that the roof is disintegrating.  This points out a major problem with all national parks and especially this one, I suppose because it is so remote.  There isn't enough funding and staff to keep up the archeological sites in the park or even to properly catalog all of the historic sites and structures.

Big Bend Park is in Brewster County which is one of the most sparsely populated areas of our whole country.  Only about 13,000 people live within its 6,000 plus square miles.  We stayed in Alpine, which is 100 miles northwest of the park headquarters and then moved to the tiny village of Terlingua which is a gateway community to the park.  These are both remote, quirky communities.  We had fun exploring around the towns as well as within the park.

Comments

[Sallie]

Joe: You WOULD love this area, including the quirky towns! We love quirky places, but we definitely didn't expect to find towns like that out there in Texas. You would want to go to Alpine and Marfa (among others). Go!

Sallie

[Sallie]

Krystal -- I am always happy to know you are enjoying the blog. And I knew from reading "show us the world" that Big Bend is the kind of place that you and your family would have loved. I will try to find your post on it.

[Joe Todd]

Thanks for the tour. I think I would like to know more about quirky communities. Sounds like my kind of place

[Krystal]

Just beautiful and so interesting to read. This was one of our favorite parks!

[Sallie]

Thank you Christine -- I'm glad you liked our pictures.

Chari -- Thanks for the nice welcome and thank you for sharing your great idea (Sunday Favorites).

I have bookmarked your site - and I will look up the post on Poudre Cyn. Colorado has some of the most spectacular scenery of anywhere we've been, for sure. And fortunately, we know we WILL be back there!
Sallie

[Chari]

Hello Sallie...

My friend, it's so very nice to have you join in with us for Sunday Favorites...welcome!!! I really enjoyed reading about Big Bend National Park...thank you so much for sharing your trip and experiences with all of us today! You know, I lived in south Texas for about 30 yrs. and regretfully never got a chance to visit Big Bend! Your photos are beautiful and I would love to visit this beautiful park some day! I enjoyed reading about Luna's jacal...isn't that amazing? Hopefully someone can preserve that little bit of history before its completely destroyed!

After reading your post, I just had to click on Colorado on your sidebar...was curious if you had made it to any of our beautiful mountain parks. I see that your son has recently moved to Longmont. I lived there a few years while growing up. I'm so glad that you have had the opportunity to visit some of Colorado's majestic scenes...it really is beautiful here! My husband and I just took a little weekend camping trip up Poudre canyon (a couple of weeks ago)...I did a post about it...if you get some spare time, would love for you to check out my photos!

Well my new friend, I've written a book! Thank you again for participating with Sunday Favorites...it's so very nice to meet you!!!

Warmest wishes,
Chari

[Christine]

Beautiful scenery!...Christine