Days 32 and 33--Whites City, NM to San Antonio, TX, stopping at Big Bend!

Yesterday (July 27th), I drove from my motel in Whites City, NM to Terlingua, TX, seeing Big Bend National Park on the way. I left my motel around 9:15am Mountain Time. On the way out, I stopped in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which is just over the line in Texas. Guadlupe Mountains was pretty but not a big stop en route (not many places to pull aside and look around). I did manage to take several nice pictures there.

Soon past Guadalupe Mountains, I entered the Central Time zone, which was rather shocking given the distinctly mountainous/southwestern landscape. The road to Big Bend was somewhat pretty but also rather bland. I stopped for gas in Van Horn, tried to look around Marfa (think I missed what is nice to check out there), and stopped for lunch in Alpine. Shortly after 3:00pm Central Time, I entered Big Bend National Park at the east entrance.

Given my rather late entrance, I didn't have time to do more than an auto tour of the park highlights. Big Bend is spectacular and in my opinion, one of the nicer national parks. However, I think it is less frequented due to its vastness and desolate location. While I did stop for a picture or two along the main road of the park, my first "destination" stop was Boquillas Canyon and the Rio Grande overlook.

After that, I headed towards Chisos Basin. On the road up to Chisos Basin, I encountered a bear with a few cubs (I believe I saw a total of four cubs although I did not capture all in the picture). I believe the type of bear is a Mexican Black Bear.

Then, I went to Santa Elena Canyon, which is probably considered one of the main landmarks of the park.

Here are some more highlights from Big Bend National Park:

While in the national park, I did encounter a few severe thunderstorms, which dropped the temperatures very temporarily from well over 100 (the high I saw was 108) to around 70.

I didn't get to my motel, located between the west entrance of the park and the Terlingua Ghost Town (a few miles from each) until 8:30pm. Instead of seeing if better eating options existed and were open in the ghost town (turns out there were), I decided to have dinner at my motel's cafe, the Big Bend Resort & Adventures Cafe, where I had a mediocore, overpriced chicken, sweet pepper, and onion pizza. My room was pretty nice for the location and for $49.95 per night plus tax but there was no in-room wifi and tv options were limited.

Today (July 28th) was another packed day. In the morning, I decided to take a half day canoe trip down the Rio Grande in Big Bend Ranch State Park. The trip, run by the Far Flung Outdoor Center, departed at around 8:00am from their office (very close to the motel) and returned just before 12:00pm. The time on the river is probably 2.5 hours or so and much of that is at a break point, so the distance covered is rather short. Nevertheless, it is a wonderful experience. Some pictures below:

After canoeing, it was on to San Antonio. The drive is approx. 458 miles or 6.5 hours, so it wasn't exactly a short trip. On the way out of Terlingua, I had to go through a US Border Patrol checkpoint where I had to wait around 10 minutes for additional screening. I made a few stops on the way, getting to San Antonio around 7:15pm. In San Antonio, I'm staying with Diane and Steve, who are friends of my mother's from college.

Tomorrow, I hope to explore San Antonio in the morning, drive to Austin midday, and then explore Austin.

Next Stop: Austin, TX