Our first auto tour of Big Bend National Park took us through all the climate zones. The park is gigantic; the road distance across the terrain from east to west is more than 60 miles and elevations range from about 1,400′ to nearly 6,000′. Magnificent ridges of mountain groups screen each other from view. The rock is both sedimentary and igneous so the variety of geological formations is nearly infinite. Before we even left the RV campground area, we spotted a golden fronted woodpecker, roadrunners, a vermilion flycatcher, a coyote, a chipmunk and either a Bell’s or Hutton’s vireo. There are ravens as big as bread loaves lingering around the trailer.
We initiated our cruise in the southeast end of the park in the area surrounding Rio Grande Village, located, strangely, right next to the Rio Grande. At this point in the river’s progress to the sea, it is anything but “grande.” Perhaps “poquito (itty-bitty)” or “verde (green)” would be a better description. In a few months the rain, if any, will come and the river will exhibit a substantially higher flow rate and a different color.
In this end of the park is the Boquillas Crossing, a pathway into Mexico across the river. Once travelers have shown their valid passport to the Homeland Security goons on this side of the river, a phone call is made to the ferrymen on the Mexico side who will dispatch their craft to transport your car into the tiny town of Boquillas, Mexico. It costs $5, round trip. A good portion of the Boquillas residences appear to be pastel-colored steel containerized cargo units with rectangular window holes cut in the sides.
There is also a Boquillas Canyon Overlook not much further down the road and the river and rock formation views are terrific. One can linger near the Rio Grande at about 1,700′ elevation and gaze up the almost-vertical cliff faces to see the pines growing up on the surrounding 6,000′ ridges. The scenery is fantastic.
After a spin down all the paved roads in the east end of the park, we drove west for about 20 miles, climbing all the way, to Panther Junction, location of a road intersection, a government visitor center and an Alon gas station. From the intersection, we turned southwest and drove up the curvy and sometimes-steep road into the Chisos Mountains, specifically to Chisos Basin. This is a truly spectacular drive from warm desert with a variety of stabby and prickly vegetation into a juniper, pine, fir and leafy hardwood forest above 5,000′ elevation. The basin is completely surrounded by massive rock cliffs and a truly amazing assortment of flora. I highly recommend a visit to Chisos Basin if you want to be overwhelmed with stunning scenery.
Before we ran out of light, we drove out of the Basin, down to Panther Junction and continuing downhill to Rio Grande Village. We spotted a foraging coyote wandering around near our trailer. He seemed unconcerned with us tourists because he pinched a loaf not far from the Barbarian Invader before disappearing toward the river.
It was a day of astounding scenery. Big Bend is a truly gorgeous gem that most folks will never see. The park may be a long way from nowhere but the sights here are amazing.
We have included a few pix. Click here

Leaving Fort Stockton and one of the state’s ugliest RV parks, we drove a few blocks and picked up US-385 south across west Texas. There is very little civilization south of town but the views of the mountains on both sides of the road are pretty good. I thought we had left all of the Texas mountains when we passed through Guadalupe Mountains National Park up on the New Mexico/Texas border near Carlsbad last week. I was wrong.
South of Marathon, Texas, the road starts to climb as we headed toward Big Bend National Park which borders the Rio Grande River and the states of Coahuila and Chihuahua in Mexico. There are massive mountains here, ranging up to around 7,800 feet. The Rio Grande has been sawing through this landscape for millions of years as it passes beneath the spectacular terrain.
We drove into the park through the strangely named Persimmon Gap at about 2,800′ elevation and continued south through the magnificent terrain to Panther Junction at 3,850′ before turning southeast downhill to Rio Grande Village alongside the river at 1,850′ elevation. We drove into and set up at the Rio Grande Village RV Park which boasts of 24 spaces, all of them full. Thank God we made a reservation because all of the park’s camping spots, with or without utility hookups, are occupied. Right off the bat, we spotted a vermilion flycatcher, a new bird on our list. We understand they also have javelinas, mule deer, mountain lions, coyotes and a host of other mammals, 450 species of birds, 55 species of reptiles including 5 types of rattlesnake, scorpions, tarantulas and 1300 species of plants. We can hardly wait to go exploring tomorrow.
There are pix. Click here

Last night (actually, early this morning) we popped out of bed to witness what was touted as a Blood Moon Blue Moon Eclipse. I don’t know why it is called a “blood” moon because it was not red. Apparently, a “blue” moon is the second full moon in a calendar month but it was plain there was an eclipse in progress because the full moon we had seen earlier in the night was a little crescent at 0500 hours. Not too many hours later, we were on our way south with the Barbarian Invader in tow.
US-285 runs from Carlsbad, N.M., to Fort Stockton, TX, and we drove this road when we passed through this area in 2015. At that time, the road was virtually abandoned and we made the long, lonely drive without seeing many vehicles, people or structures. We made the same drive today and there was nasty traffic, construction, congestion and a road surface that appears to have been graded with 500 pound bombs. There are potholes sufficiently large to swallow even the 18 inch tires on our beloved Charlotte. We crossed back into the Central Time Zone despite driving directly south.
Apparently, the refinery that used to be next to US-285 in Orla, TX, blew up in a glorious explosion in December 2015. There are dozens of cranes and extensive personnel housing now strewn across the ugly, flat landscape as a new refinery is being built. Oil industry equipment and trucks are massive and hauling them around on one of the only public roads in the area has resulted in the almost complete destruction of the highway. They also think dust control is for sissies and entire valleys of west Texas are shrouded in gigantic clouds of opaque and pervasive dust raised by all the rednecks and oil field hands scurrying about. It is ugly.
We finally passed through the construction (or lack of construction because we didn’t see too many workers fixing the cratered road) and arrived in the town of Pecos, legendary home to cowboy stuff. There are absolutely no cowboys around Pecos now. Pecos is now a oil industry supply point and it is quite plain who is in charge. The city streets are extremely lumpy, welding and pipeline vendors occupy most of the ugly, ramshackle buildings, all of the pickup trucks (white, of course) have welding machines in the bed and there is a thick layer of dust on all stationary objects.
South of I-20, we departed from the hellish Pecos and broke out on good paving for the remaining 75 miles to Fort Stockton. Other than west Texas scrub brush, the stench of crude oil and distant gas flares squirting flames into the sky, there is very little in the way of improvements or people in this part of the world.
In Fort Stockton, we pulled into the Roadrunner RV Park which is a big ugly vacant gravel and dirt lot with places to hook up to utilities nailed to telephone poles. We will be leaving in the morning to continue our trek south to Big Bend National Park down on the Texas/Mexico border. With our discount card at Roadrunner it is only $12 a night which is about right considering the miserable landscaping but their wifi works. I’m surprised there is wifi here because the locals don’t appear to be computer or English literate. However, I did spot some folks with natural teeth.
There’s pix. Click here

Shopping in Carlsbad was the agenda for today. We went to Harbor Freight for some cheap and cheesy cutting boards, the U.S. Post Office, Albertson’s for groceries, made a fuel stop and topped it all off with a trip to Becky’s which is a drive-in with car hops.
Peggy said her burger was okay and my steak fingers were mysterious. It is quite cheap to eat here but you get what you pay for.
Back at our campsite, we watched scaled quail and a roadrunner as they feasted on the little mounds of bird seed that Peggy had deposited on top of flat rocks near our trailer. They are very pretty birds but quite pushy with each other when food is involved. Not long after the birds found the food, it was gone and they scampered away to seek other suckers.

Carlsbad Caverns is the reason we have come to this part of New Mexico. We headed into the National Park today to make our third descent into the wonderland of Carlsbad Cavern. In 2015 we passed this way and made two forays into the gigantic underground void. We rode the 750′ down in the elevator the first time and walked the steeply descending trail the second time. The trail is rough on the knees because it is steep and relentless.
Today we rode the elevator down and took the pathway around the Great Room which is truly great. The trail around the periphery of the giant room is a couple miles long and, fortunately, the lights didn’t go out because getting out of a pitch-black hole could be problematic. Most of the pathway is pretty level but there are some sections where steep up- and downgrades challenge old people, like me.
The cave formations, however, are spectacular and highly varied; stalactites, stalagmites, columns and weird curtains of limestone and calcite abound and textures of the surfaces seem to run the gamut between absolutely smooth to gigantic clumps of stone that look like popcorn stuck to a stick. Ponds of absolutely clear water dot the floor of the cave but the exits for the water cannot be determined since some flows sideways and other ponds drain out the black bottom. The National Park Service has done a commendable job lighting the formations considering the sheer volume of the place. This Cavern is one of my favorite places in the U.S. and I would never miss an opportunity to descend into this fantasy world if I was anywhere near.
During summer, there is a mass exodus of bats out the cavern entrance every night. An amphitheater for bat watchers is built just above the cave entrance for those wishing to ogle the fuzzy little critters as they emerge to save us from nasty insects. There are lots of bats – a count by the NPS indicated 18,000 bats per minute exiting the opening out of the cavern. Of course, we are here in January and all the bats are lounging in the warm weather down in Mexico so we settled for the magnificent view from the visitor center over West Texas to the south.
On the way home, we spotted not less than seven big, healthy-looking mule deer scattered across the park landscape. We also noted numerous hawks that looked quite large and robust. The limestone cliffs alongside the entrance road to the park are very colorful and riddled with small caves where it looks like former inhabitants found shelter. This park is pretty spectacular both above and below ground.
To see some pix we took in and under the park, click here

We believed we had done enough hard traveling for the last few days so we took a rest day today. We set our chairs outside and scoped out the local birds. There are lots of big American pelicans, scaled quail, ducks, cormorants and even roadrunners here. We took a short spin around the Brantley Lake State Park in the truck but the joint is pretty puny so we were back in about 20 minutes. Then we slugged out and watched movies. We can be dull. Maybe all the time.
We did get a few pix around the lake. Click here

Today was another travel day so we put away the satellite dish, disconnected the power and split from Anthony, N.M., and drove south on I-10 into El Paso, Texas. We did not have to go all the way through El Paso before turning onto US-62/180 toward Carlsbad, N.M. El Paso is not one of our favorite cities. It is pretty ugly. Juarez, Mexico, murder capital of the world, is plainly visible across the Rio Grande. Viewers only need to peer over the ugly sheet steel wall dividing homely from dangerous.
At the El Paso end of US-62, there are widely-spaced red traffic lights timed such they are always red if traffic dares to approach. Once out of town, the road starts a long climb from right next to the Rio Grande to about 4500′ elevation. The grade made our engine snort some but we finally arrived on a massive high plain called the El Paso Valley. There are very few scattered structures and a whole lot of nothing except great mountain views along the Texas portion of the highway. Partway through the drive, we crossed from Mountain into the Central Time Zone. In this location, the highway is passing through Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas with an elevation of 8751′. It is a spectacular, gigantic formation squirting up from the flat surrounding land. It was only then that we realized we would be required to ascend partway up the mountain before being able to continue toward Carlsbad. It is a steep, long climb but we finally got over the top before starting a downhill run into New Mexico where we went backward in time into the Mountain Time Zone.
Less than an hour later, we rolled into Carlsbad. We passed through town for about 20 miles and finally turned into Brantley Lake State Park, space 20. The have water and electric hookups here but waste needs to be taken to the park’s dump station so we won’t be here more than the tanks’ capacity or 4 days. The campground is located on a peninsula in a lake and the views and sunsets are magnificent. There are lots of birds here.
There’s a picture of an El Paso wreck and Guadalupe Peak if you click here

Again we passed through mostly high desert on our trek eastward today. We left Deming by about 10:30 and jumped back on I-10 continuing through more gorgeous long views to the surrounding rocky desert mountain ranges. About 100 miles later, we pulled off in Anthony, a city of numerous cattle feedlots located between Las Cruces, N.M., and El Paso, TX.
A few miles later, we pulled into the West El Paso RV Park despite still being in New Mexico. It is another large gravel lot but there are lots of trees here, some with leaves. The wifi at this parking lot is terrific unlike the wifi last night in the gravel parking lot in Deming. Another good point is that we are upwind of the enormous cattle feedlots, their flies and their rich, aromatic scents. We will be departing tomorrow to continue our trek toward Carlsbad, N.M.

Driving across a large high desert was our task for today. We started out at about 4500′ elevation and, despite a bunch of hills and valleys along our route, ended up at about 4500′ elevation. The weather was clear as a bell and the long vistas to the myriad mountains poking up out of the desert were fantastic. The mountains here are not the nice, green formations we typically visit. Instead, they are huge monoliths of bare, fried stone. They are very jagged and quite striking.
We drove about 20 miles north from Sierra Vista/Huachuca City and then headed east on I-10 again. There ain’t much in the way of cities or towns going east on the interstate. We passed through Benson, Arizona, and Lordsburg, New Mexico, and other than that, it is a broad expanse with a few remote trading posts. These trading posts have dozens of roadside billboards as drivers approach touting incongruous selections of items like, diesel, “real” Indian moccasins, Mexican serapes and blankets and, strangely, knives. We blasted right by them at about 65 mph.
After a couple hundred miles, we pulled off the interstate in Deming, N.M., where we ambled over to the Low Hi RV Park. There was a sign in front of the park that said it was the location where “singles swing” but we didn’t spot any swinging singles or anybody else that appears any differently than ordinary RV park denizens which are predominately middle-aged and elderly adults and dogs.
During our previous visits to Deming, we have stayed at a place called Rancho Lobo RV Park. Unfortunately, the road from Deming to Rancho Lobo is about 10 miles in length and some of it is poorly paved. The last little bit is dirt and, since the last two times we have visited the park it was raining, we carried a little bit of New Mexico all over the country when we departed because the red mud splatter from the road is both a rich color and adheres to anything it touches like Bondo. No amount of driving in rain will remove the material or the color. Fortunately for us, the roads to the Low Hi RV Park are paved. The park is basically a gravel parking lot although they have some trees, none of them with leaves at this time of year. The wifi sucks in both parks. After all, we are in Deming, not known as a place where modern electronic communications is important. They do have a very good county museum here but we will miss it this time because we are continuing our eastward trek in the morning.

Today was another day for us to catch up on some maintenance so our exploration went right out the window. Peggy finished the laundry we didn’t finish a couple days ago. I dumped the waste tanks and filled our on-board water supply because we are heading into areas where water might not be available. We disassembled and re-assembled the rear left corner of the trailer but this time we used appropriate fasteners unlike the rusty short screws we removed and discarded. We bought fuel, tobacco and milk to top off our supplies. We made some reservations for our next few destinations. I had one of our propane tanks filled. We have used quite a bit of propane recently because it is down in the 20’s at night here. The two electric 1500 watt heaters we have in the trailer just can’t keep up with outside temperatures below freezing but the trailer’s propane furnace has no problem. It does chew up a lot of fuel, though.
Tomorrow we depart the Huachuca City/Sierra Vista area heading east toward New Mexico and Texas. We will cross the Continental Divide for the first time on this year’s trip shortly after we go by Lordsburg, N.M. Maybe the nighttime temperatures will come up a bit once we start going down instead of up.