Drug Runners and Illegals...(to be continued - maybe...)

The objective is a visit to all the National Parks, knowing that some are way, way out there...areas one would never really want to visit.  Think almost to the North Pole, American Samoa Islands, California, and then the poster child, Big Bend.

Very far southwest part of Texas, less than a stones throw... no, less than a short, ankle deep wade away from Mexico.

Mexican Drug Runners and Illegals...

On the list of National Parks, but near the bottom on our list.

It was that fear thing again - Drug Runners and Illegals...in our minds, they have taken the Park Rangers hostage and are using Big Bend National Park as a freeway into the USA!

Now what kind of guy am I to take my loved ones into that?  Clyde turned into a drug mule, the Fox a meth lab, and I can't even begin to imagine what they might do to the Leading Lady.

But...we ran into a wonderful older couple named Bob and Marilyn during our stay at Lakewood.  They seemed nice, kept their place looking tidy, no chemical lab smells wafting from their RV, no pit bulls...

They said they had visited most of the parks and Big Bend was their fav, and it was safe...hmmm.  And a few other things we found also spoke highly of Big Bend...so...

We left Ft. Davis and the McDonald Observatory and headed to what we knew would be our last four days on earth.




But first let's pause.

Sometimes you do things without realizing you are doing them, nor without always understanding the benefits resulting from it.  Like brushing your teeth, deodorant and harvesting toe jam...good for you, with benefits to others. 

Our travel has been much the same way - we have driven much and have hiked.  We try to get 3 or 4 miles a day walking or hiking in the parks we visit.  And we've tried to be immersive, seeing the parks, getting a feel for the area and thinking about who came before us.  It's not just about collecting passport stamps (usually). 

And other than skiing the Rockies, it has been gradual exposure to the sights.  Our travel west was from the beaches at OBX to the flats of Amarillo, to the Sand Dunes of Colorado, then the deserts and foothills of New Mexico, then the jagged terrain of Signal Mountain (Clyde and the Fox working it for the camara below) in the Guadeloupe Mountain range of Texas.

Purposely we have not yet visited the well knowns such as Zion and Bryce or the Grand Canyon.

It has been kind of like orchestrating a piece of classical music.  The increasing energy, adding volume as the melody builds towards a crescendo.

We are building anticipation with each increased exposure to bigger and grander heights and vistas.

The objective is to not visit the big names first, the well knowns, with concern the rest might seem to be ho-hum and a letdown (plus it's still cold in Utah!)

But we were not prepared for the beauty of Big Bend.  We heard a bit about it, although it's really a sleeper, a hidden gem - not often written about and visited even less often.





Part of the reason is location...it's on the S curve of the Rio Grande, the major river valley which separates the US from Mexico (read that again, the border separating the US from Mexico, hence drug Runners and Illegals...)

The park encompasses much of the section of land where the Rio Grand turns north for a distance, before turning back south on its run to the sea.

And the park is large, in fact, the only park to have an entire mountain range located within its borders.  Hint - remember that tidbit. 



But Big Bend is 100 miles past No Where.  Look at the mountain range in the distance in the picture below...

Big Bend is way past it.

And it is Texas, so 75 MPH speed limits and straight road for that 100 miles.   So with an hour and a half of nothing to do, we tied off the reins on Clyde and just let him run while we both went back into the Fox, made sandwiches and had a siesta.

That Clyde is a beast! 

And the closer we got, the higher and more dramatic the upthrusts and moon-like the terrain.

We did pass a Border Patrol post, but it was 50 miles from Big Bend.  Which only confirmed our fears - we had entered into No Man's Land.




And once we passed it, just like The Twilight Zone - everything turned to black and white...

If we survive, we'll post more from Big Bend...



Let the adventure continue...