11-14-10 Sunday at Big Bend National Park

Sunday – 11/14/10
Photos:  http://silverserenity.shutterfly.com/2430  This includes all photos of the time in Big Bend National Park. 

After breakfast and general clean up we headed to the hot springs. They are two miles off the main road with a dirt access road. However, only smaller vehicles are able to manipulate the road. No wide trucks or trucks with 4 tires on the back axel, no trailers, no RV’s etc.

Thankfully, Thomas was driving. The road was a narrow road with a cliff with sharp jagged rocks waiting to grab you on one side. The other side was a straight drop off. In one area the road split into one way traffic.

The parking area had a restroom. The other buildings were from years ago when there was a house, store and maybe a type of single floor “motel” with 7 rooms. There was a sign and old photo inside the store that showed how it used to look. The Rio Grande River was visible from the “hotel”.

On down the trial were cliffs that had Petroglyphs on them. The trail to the hot spring was beside the Rio Grande River. In areas there were reeds between the trail and the river.

To our surprise, the hot spring is in the Rio Grande River! There is an old bathing area of cemented rocks which contains the hot water. Many years ago there was water from the river which was gravity fed into the pool to cool it. Today this is not working. Dividers had been built in the pool. Part of the dividers in the pool appears to be cut logs. There is a lot of silt on the bottom from where the river rises and overflows into the pool leaving silt to cover the bottom. The pool was hot and the river was cold. After sitting in the hot springs you could take a dip in the river to cool off.

Across the river is Mexico. Yes, that close! Mexicans and their horses were on one side and we were on the other. They would ride the horse over and leave trinkets, bracelets, rocks (mostly amethysts), painted rocks and walking sticks. There would be a sign with the amounts for the items and a can or jar to leave money in.

While we were there a man was talking to one of the Mexicans. He road over and they talked more while he checked the items and jar. When the Mexican left his horse, he kept looking down the trail to make sure there were no border patrol or park ranger coming. This trip he made it with no problem. It was evident that the river would be easy to cross even on foot.

After we got back to the trailer, Thomas took a nap and I started putting this information onto our computer to upload to the blog when we could.

The rest of the day was spent leisurely. After supper and a shower we watched a movie from a collection we brought with us. (The solar is finally working so much better. There is still a small glitch and we think it is probably in the inverter.) Just after laying down the coyotes began to howl. One sounded like it was just outside our trailer. Another up in the mountains would answer back.

Other than that it is amazingly quiet here at night. Almost eerily quiet. We are paid here through the 18 but can stay another week if we want to. The sites that can be reserved are filling up and the host told us it get full and busy here the week of Thanksgiving. We will probably stay on here on a day by day basis. If it gets too loud and busy, we will leave and head on. Of course, will keep you updated on what we decide to do.

Hugs to all.