From the Top of Texas to our New Happy Place in New Mexico

Aloha all,

we are currently in “Truth or Consequences”, which is my favorite spot of this trip! And as you know, there is some really tough competition. It’s not because of the name, but if you want to know why we like it so much, you’ll just have to read through all the other boring stuff we did in the past week, such as a spelunking scavenger hunt, another tip-toeing trip to Mexico, and an open air musical amongst other things.

It took us over a month to get here from Austin. According to Google, it takes less than ten hours to drive this route. But then we would have missed out on all the fun places. What surprises us the most: We take it a lot slower and more relaxed than on earlier road trips, but we seem to see just us much. Some of our favorite experiences only came about because we were not in a rush to get anywhere.

Guadalupe Peak - The Top of Texas!

What a wonderful month it has been, this last week was no exception. As indicated at the end of the last post, I want to give Sandra credit for making us hike to Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas. Starting at the campground in the desert, we hiked up 3000 feet in elevation to the summit at 8751 feet above sea level. About half way up, the scenery changes completely. Different vegetation, e.g. pine trees instead of cacti, different views and even different smells. From the “Top of Texas” we could see for miles and miles all the way around, but hardly saw a single house, let alone town. We expected a 360 degree view, that’s why we were willing to challenge us with this hike. What I did not expect to see at the summit were thousands and thousands of lady bugs. I wonder whether they are found on all the peaks in the Guadalupe Mountains or whether they all like to hang out just at the highest one, kind of like every climber wants to go to the top of Mount Everest. 

Lady Bugs at Guadalupe Peak

Our next stop were the “Hueco Tanks”. They are some very special hills outside of El Paso, named after the natural reservoirs that hold water long after everything else in the surrounding area is dried up, making it an oasis in the desert. Because of their spiritual importance to native Americans, access is very restricted. But traveling in off season has its advantage, we were able to get in, even get a wonderful campsite and a guided tour into the otherwise inaccessible part of the park. 

Scavenger Hunt at Hueco Tanks

But our favorite part was a scavenger hunt style scramble to a cave with the best preserved native American rock art. Rather than marking a trail or marking the location on a map, you can get a description that kind of reads like this: “Walk up the hill until you see a rock that looks like a duck. Turn right towards the rocks that look like a lizard, walk under the lizard’s head and go up the hill until you see the narrow cave opening…”. These are very pretty rock formations to begin with, the rock art was some of the best preserved and it all being a game made it even more rewarding.

Rock Art at Hueco Tanks

We had not been in a real city since San Antonio, almost 4 weeks ago. As much as we love nature and national parks, we were somewhat excited to come to El Paso. However, we never really made it to downtown. Two days later, by the time we saw the things that we were most interested in, we were ready to go back to ‘nature mode’. But in El Paso, we loved our tour of the Magoffin Mansion, the Magoffins were one of the most important families in the establishment of El Paso. We always enjoy guided tours of historical homes, this being an adobe building was an extra touch and the tour guide made it even more special by taking twice as much time even though we were the only two people on the tour.

Magoffin Mansion in El Paso

Next, we went to the Chamizal National Memorial, without really knowing what is being memorialized there. Just in case one or two of our readers are similarly ignorant, here is a little history about this border region between the US and Mexico: After the Mexican-American War in 1848, Mexico had to acknowledge that Texas belonged to the US and the border between the two countries was pretty much settled as being along the Rio Grande. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? The problem is that rivers move, more so then, when The Rio Grande was much wilder, with no dams or canals. In some areas around El Paso, the Rio Grande moved considerably to the south over the years, leaving about 600 acres disputed. Mexico claimed it because it had always been their territory and the US claimed it because it was now north of the river.

Luckily, no side was willing to fight another war over it, but it took a century before a compromise was negotiated. Basically the river was re-routed through the middle and lands were swapped to make it even. I am sure some of the 5000 residents who had to relocate were not happy, but still beats a war. JFK had started negotiations and LBJ signed the agreement in 1964, so this is not ancient history. There is another large area west of El Paso that transferred from Mexico to US peacefully when the US bought almost 30,000 square miles to build a Southern transcontinental railroad under the Gadsden Purchase in 1854, which Mexico probably regrets as much as the Russians regret selling Alaska.

Intrigued by the eventful history of the border here, I wanted to walk across the border to Mexico. The ranger at the memorial told us it takes only about half an hour and his wife frequently performs weddings in the middle of the bridge. The border in El Paso is pretty much the opposite from our row boat and mule ride at Big Bend. It’s heavily fortified and while the walk to Mexico and back only took half an hour, even for pedestrians the re-entry took another hour of standing in the sun. A lady in front of us actually fainted! Well, that was “interesting” - but rather in the sense how our friend Andreas in Munich used to describe food that he hated.

Walking across the US/Mexican border in El Paso

We were lucky to find out that we were in El Paso during the opening weekend of their annual “Viva El Paso” musical production. It is a fun story that shows how love is the common thread between the different cultures of El Paso, from native Americans to Mexicans and Western pioneers. What the actors were lacking in professional talent, they made up with enthusiasm, local pride and with the most dramatic setting I can imagine: An open air amphitheater in a canyon above the city. 

Viva El Paso! Musical in the McKelligon Amphitheater 

Since we have yet to be disappointed by any National Park Service site (and we’ve been to almost 100!), of course we were interested in the Organ Mountain Desert Peaks National Monument just north of El Paso. We were a little confused, because it appears on some maps, but not on others. I usually try not to get too political in this blog, but here’s a short explanation: The park is very new, established by President Obama in 2014. In 2017, the Trump administration considered taking away the protection afforded by the National Monument dedication. Two factors helped save the park: 1. There was a lot of local and national protests against the plans and 2. There are no known oil or mineral deposits here. And without any financial incentive, the plans to get rid of the national monument were quickly scrapped, the area was declared a wilderness and now seems to be safe from development. Other places might not be so lucky.

Agave Plant at the Organ Mountain Desert Peaks National Monument

We loved camping and hiking in the Organ Mountains. Besides the pure scenic beauty, it has some of the best desert vegetation we have seen and we found out that Sandra LOVES blooming cacti. There is also some interesting history. For example a cave where a monk called “The Hermit” lived and the ruins of a resort that thrived here over 100 years ago. Even though we need plenty of gas for Joy, I am so glad they did not find any oil under these Desert Peaks.

Luckily, this is the most valuable resource
at Organ Mountain Desert Peaks National Monument

We usually prefer seeing new places rather than going back to places we know and like. But we made an exception for the White Sands National Monument. It’s just so pretty and so different. At well over 100 degrees F during the day, a little one mile loop to the top of a 30 foot sand dune was about as strenuous as hiking to Guadalupe Peak, but also well worth it. The rolling dunes of the very white sand makes me feel like it’s a different planet.

Sandra, Chris and Joy at White Sands National Monument 

The National Park Service is smart enough to schedule the ranger guided walk here around sunset, when it starts to cool down. And they were smart enough to hire Joseph as a ranger. Joseph was probably just in his mid 20’s, but not only did he seem to know everything, he was also a natural actor. I want him on my charades team: He acted out 10,000 year old petrified footprints….or what scientists concluded might have happened when they were created. White Sands does not have a campground that Joy could get to, but there is some wonderful BLM land very close by, where we found the perfect spot for her…and us.

White Sands is not just the dunes in the national monument, but also an active missile range. This is where the very first atom bomb was detonated. But the “Trinity Site” can only be visited twice a year and we don’t plan that far ahead. We did not get to visit their museum either, because they changed their opening hours without telling anyone. Let’s just say I hope they keep their arsenal more up to date than their website. So the only place we were able to visit was the missile park. And I have to admit, I found that a little depressing. Not sure whether that’s because I don’t really understand most of the technology or because I think it is sad how much human creativity is used to come up with better ways to blow each other up.

Missile Park at the White Sands Missile Range

Mesilla is the kind of cute town that I could write a whole blog post about. But I am afraid, I’d lose most of my audience and then you would not get to read about our real new favorite town, so I will keep it super short: Even ‘downtown’ Mesilla was very sleepy, but the “La Posta” restaurant was all the more busy. And we can see why: We liked it so. much that we went there for lunch and then again for happy hour just a few hours later. Walking through the little town made me feel like we are in a different country, if not a different time. In fact, after we watched a fun french movie in a historic theater, I was surprised to hear and read English when we walked out.

Happy Hour at "La Posta de Messina"

Now we are in “Truth or Consequences”. You know there must a good story to a name like that. The town was actually called “Hot Springs”, which makes a lot of sense, since they have plenty of those. But in 1950 there was a popular radio game show and for their 10 year anniversary, they offered some incentives for one town to change their name to “Truth or Consequences”. There were several contestants, but Hot Springs, New Mexico won and has been known as “Truth or Consequences” or “TOC” ever since. Pretty amazing that a radio show can have that kind of impact on a town; I don’t think I’d like live in “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”, even though I love that show! In TOC, they still celebrate the name change every year with a big fiesta. But as I mentioned, the name is not why we like this town so much, that’s mostly because of the place we are staying at.

Riverbend Hot Springs in Truth or Consequences 

The “Riverbend Hot Springs” has a small RV Park and it includes all day access to their delightful riverside hot spring pool area. It’s truly a fairy tale setting: A serene garden with five pools of varying temperatures on the banks of the Rio Grande. Great place to bird watch while soaking during the day and at night they have lights that make the fairy tale setting complete. With the high temperatures, I never expected to enjoy the hot springs so much. But they get plenty of shade, a nice little breeze and there is a deck and stairs to enjoy a cool dip in the river whenever you want. We are not the only ones enthralled by this place: Everybody seems to have a bit of a grin on their face.

Sandra soaking with 'Diamond Head' in the background 

They must have heard we are coming from Hawaii, so they put a mountain shaped like Diamond Head across from the river, that’s how thoughtful they are. They also must have heard about my failed attempt to float on the Rio Grande in Big Bend (maybe my blog has gone viral without me noticing?). So this happens to be the perfect spot for float trips: Much more water, much faster moving and much less muddy. The company offering float trips did not operate that day, so I just walked up a few blocks with my inner tube and floated back to the Riverbend. I loved it so much that, after warming up in hot springs, I walked up the street again. However, this time a friendly ‘Truth or Consequencian’ (is that what you call them?) saw me with my tube, pulled over and asked me whether I needed a ride. He was only two blocks from his home, but he took me 3 miles up the river (and he let me use his phone to warn Sandra that it will take a little longer for me to float back this time). Turns out I like not just New Mexico but also New Mexicans. He told me he moved here because it’s weirder than Colorado. I guess he has not met any of our friends in Aspen, they seem plenty weird…in a good way! 

Floating 3 miles on the Rio Grande

Floating downriver, beautiful scenery, a couple of rapids just exciting enough without being dangerous, blue skies with birds playing overhead, how cool is this! It’s so pretty, I am running out of adjectives to describe this place, so I will try two other ways, to describe how much we liked Riverbend Hot Springs:

1. We rarely spend more than one night in the same place. We already felt we splurged by booking an RV park for $68. This is the most expensive RV park we ever stayed at, but with all the amenities, we feel it’s also the best value of any RV park we ever stayed at. We sat in the hot springs, watching the Rio Grande go by and the birds playing along the river for less than an hour when we decided to extend our stay and we booked another night.

2. Truth or Consequences has a brewery and a historical museum within easy walking distance from Riverbend Hot Springs, but we never made it to either one of those places!!! If you know how much we like local breweries and historical museums, you should get an idea how much we enjoyed ourselves at the hot springs and how we did not want to miss a moment there.

Our Happy Place in TOC

Today, we are leaving this special place behind. Anything after this will pale in comparison, right? Well, they thought about that, too: We will do something so different that no comparison will even be possible. They just happen to have the “Spaceport America Cup” in the desert outside of Truth or Consequences this week. That’s a special event where over 100 aerospace engineering teams from colleges and universities around the world compete in designing and shooting rockets. One of the judges just happened to stay at the Riverbend Hot Springs with us and gave us the inside scoop. They will fire over 100 rockets towards space! We are heading there today, let’s see how it doesn’t compare to the serenity of our new happy place.

Life is good...is an understatement. 

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra

Star party, desert diving, cave tours and half a million bats

Aloha all,

for our last day in Big Bend National Park, I was tempted to float down the Rio Grande on an inflatable swim ring. I had expected this to be illegal. With all the media coverage about the border lately, we don’t think of the Rio Grande as a play ground. To my surprise, the border agent and park rangers were almost encouraging this idea, even though I did not see anybody actually doing it. When I ‘tested the waters’, I quickly found out why: Sandra had already decided not to do this because the water was at the opposite spectrum of clarity from the crystal clear Frio River we floated down at the Garner State Park. I changed my mind when I was almost knee deep in mud before getting to the actual water. So I chickened out and will never know whether I missed out on a really unique international float trip or whether I avoided getting stuck in the mud somewhere between the US and Mexico. Sometimes it’s disappointing how responsible I can be.

But the alternative, a great hike along the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, actually turned out to be a really fun little adventure, too. However, the highlight of that day came surprisingly in the evening on the campground, even though it appeared to be one of the most boring, most desolate RV parks we have ever stayed at. But Mother Nature put on a show for us that night: A sunset in one direction, a rainbow in the other, the darkest clouds I have ever seen and thunder and lightning all the way around us. I counted an average of 30 flashes per minute and it went on for over an hour! What made it very surreal was the fact that even though the thunderstorm seemed to be pretty much surrounding us, we were able to BBQ outside and barely got a drop of rain…

Evening show at the campground: sunset, rainbows, lightning and the darkest clouds I have ever seen.

Just one of the hundreds of lightning flashes that night.

A “lively ghost town” seems like an oxymoron, but that’s what the town of Terlingua is. Part abandoned ghost town, part thriving tourist trap and part gathering of eccentric artists. The cemetery was full of gravesites that made it pretty obvious that some of the residents would have a story to tell, if they weren’t six feet underground. But even the living creatures above ground can be pretty colorful:

One of the colorful residents of the Terlingua ghost town

We drove the very scenic highway 170 along the Rio Grande to Fort Leaton. Most forts we have been to have similar stories; telling the history of westward expansion, trading and fighting with the native tribes and eventually cheating them out of their homelands. This fort is very different, not only because it’s built of adobe. 

Fort Leaton

Since this fort is practically on the Mexican border, the history is a little more complex. We got a little bit into the history before we realized that this is a trap: The whole reason we enjoy American history is because on a layman’s level, you can keep it pretty straightforward, as long as you simply ignore anything that happened before white people showed up. But when they started mentioning the Mexican revolution as if we should have heard about it before, we decided to ignore any history south of the border for now. Just trying to keep it simple before it becomes a confusing mess in my head, like European history. Plus, we are easily distracted if we see an interesting critter:

The fort's 'greeter by the main door

We spent that night at the “Marfa Mystery Lights Viewing Area”. In case you have not heard about these lights, I will try to explain why nobody can explain what they are: Depending on who you ask, they are either: A hoax by the local visitor bureau, a fata morgana reflecting lights from nearby oil fields or car headlights, a sign of alien life, or some other unexplained phenomenon. Whatever it is, it attracts enough curious visitors that they built a big parking lot and viewing area along highway 67 in the middle of nowhere. The only lights we saw when we got there were the flashes from the thunderstorms, which have been almost a nightly occurrence this past week. The clouds and the rain were so heavy that we were the only ones at the viewing area, even though we had been warned how busy this place can get around sunset. But one of our favorite things about Texas is that they let you stay overnight in an RV at almost any highway rest area, including this one. So we drank wine and played cards until the sky cleared. And indeed, just before midnight, there were some very obvious lights just above the horizon to the southwest. 

My first instinct was that those must be car headlights and could not possibly be the mystery lights we were looking for. However, some things don’t add up: 1. There is no road where we saw those lights, at least close enough to see the lights as bright as they appeared. 2. If they were headlights, why did they seem to move in random directions, even though all the roads in the area are straight? 3. Why did we see only headlights, was nobody driving in the other direction? 4. Why did I see the most lights in the middle of the night, when I got up to pee? Maybe I am just sympathetic to the Marfa Mystery Lights because they let us camp for free for the night, but mark me down as a believer. I am just not sure what I believe.

The next three days we spent in and around Fort Davis. The actual fort, for which the town is named, was named after Jefferson Davis before he became the president of the confederacy. It is one of the better preserved forts, also because it is managed by our beloved National Park Service. The location under rocky bluffs is very scenic, but it became obsolete and was abandoned quite a while ago. The other main attraction of Fort Davis is the McDonald Observatory. It might be the leading observatory that is open to the public. We joined a daytime program with solar viewing and a tour of the facilities as well as an evening ‘star party’. One of my favorite programs was a presentation about “Spectroscopy”, which they added only to stall for time until the skies cleared for the actual star gazing. 

McDonald Observatory 

I always wondered how astronomers can tell so much about a star that is thousands or even millions of lightyears away. A very simply demonstration made that pretty clear: We all got a little piece of plexiglas with tiny lines etched into it. Looking at a normal light through it revealed a spectrum of the whole rainbow of colors. Looking at a light reflected through various elements like hydrogen, helium or mercury resulted in very distinct patterns. So by analyzing the pattern of light reflected by a far away star, it’s relatively easy to determine what that star is made of. I find almost everything I hear at star parties or planetarium shows is tremendously fascinating but I forget 99% of it almost instantly. The tours and presentation at the McDonald Observatory were so well done and so memorable, I might only forget 98%. 

I am somewhat curious about space travel and I heard that NASA just announced that for a mere 52 million dollars, they’ll take ‘tourists’ to the International Space Station soon. But I might be a little too old, a little to prone to motion sickness and a lot too poor to ever go into space. But the closest thing I can think of is scuba diving: After all: As a diver, you are also pretty much weightless in a totally different world. We always enjoy diving in Hawaii, but by now we are at least somewhat familiar with the underwater world surrounding Maui. So when we heard that there is a fresh water spring in the middle of the desert in West Texas, we were determined to check it out. The San Solomon Spring at the Balmorhea State Park sounded almost ideal for diving: 25 feet deep, very clear visibility, always around 74 degrees warm water and right next to it is a funky little dive shop called “The Funky Little Dive Shop”. 

One giant step for Sandra...

Now, I will admit, when we got to Balmorhea and saw the spring, we thought that this dive was mostly for the novelty for us to dive in fresh water; it pretty much looked like a very big swimming pool. But one giant step into the water and we were intrigued: Crystal clear blue water, bright green algae and hundreds of little friendly fish. The “Mexican Tetras” are such friendly fish that they seem to follow and surround us for most of the dive. There are only about a handful of different kind of fish in this spring, but since every one of them was new to us, it was a very enjoyable dive…in the middle of the desert, who would have thought! The catfish looked like mini sharks and the crayfish like mini lobster. It all felt a little bit like diving in an aquarium. There are also soft shell fresh water turtles that look very different from our green sea turtles in Hawaii. 

Soft shell fresh water turtle at San Solomon Springs

Catfish (or mini shark in my imagination)

Some of the friendliest fish I ever saw

We enjoyed the dive so much (and had plenty of air left in our tanks) that we did a second dive in the afternoon. The underwater routes you can dive are somewhat limited: Enter on one side, dive to the deepest spot, which is at only about 25 feet, where the fresh spring water comes bubbling up through the sand and dive back to where you started. But the novelty of it all did not wear off. On the first dive we had the whole bottom half of the pool to ourselves, on the second dive we saw other bubble blowing humans who were nice enough to snap a pictures of us after seeing us struggling to take an underwater selfie.

We loved our dive in the desert!

Next we went to Pecos. This is the perfect town to go to if you feel overwhelmed by the beauty of Texas. I am not sure I have ever seen a less attractive town. There is no scenery to be seen, and the downtown area (if you can call it that) seems desolate and mostly abandoned, even though this town is booming like crazy. I have never seen another place that seems to be booming and dying at the same time. There are oil fields all around Pecos, even in town you see the flares burning off extra gas everywhere. The abundance of high paying jobs attracts a lot of workers, even McDonald’s pays $16/hour here. Housing for all the oil workers seems to be a real problem. But instead of renovating the abandoned houses in town, they just add RV parks, mobil home parks and container communities all over the place. I guess that’s faster and cheaper and nobody seems to expect this boom to last very long. There is a Walmart in Pecos but it’s tiny, overcrowded and outdated. If they expected this boom to last, they’d build a ‘real’ Walmart here. We had a hard time even finding a store that sells fresh fruits or vegetables, which is ironic since Pecos prides itself to be the original home of Cantaloupe melons. But it’s still Texas, so even in a desolate place like this, you can get an amazingly delicious Texas BBQ. We start to understand why Bunt misses Texas BBQ so much on Maui. 

The only other enjoyable place besides the BBQ we found in Pecos was the local history museum. It’s housed in the old saloon and hotel and each hotel room features a different aspect of the boom and bust history of Pecos. Probably their number one claim to fame is that they held the very first rodeo ever. If you ever wanted to go to a rodeo without hearing anybody bragging how “this ain’t my first rodeo”, you should have been in Pecos in 1883. Of course, just like there are at least three ‘largest balls of twine’, there are also three places claiming to have staged the first rodeo. Pecos wins the category for the first rodeo where prize money was awarded.

The most flattering picture I could take of desolate, booming Pecos, TX

We love the National Park Service and we always enjoy visiting caves, enough reason to head over the New Mexico state line to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park. “Wow!” That is probably all I should say, since it’s hard to describe how amazing the Carlsbad Caverns are…

…but you know I can’t help myself, so I will try to describe them anyway: They are big, but not the biggest. They are old, but not the oldest. They are deep, but not the deepest. So they humbly settle with being ’the most beautiful’ cave in the world. The awe inspiring “Big Room” can be visited on a self guided tour. Even though these caves are obviously very popular, they are so big that it did not get very crowded. We also joined a ranger guided tour to a more secluded area. There is an endless variety of formations and depending on your preference you can learn about the science of their creation, find funny shapes or just enjoy the beauty of it all.

Carlsbad Caverns NP - image two miles of this...

This is a ‘show cave’, meaning it was made very accessible for visitation. If you don’t want to walk down the (very impressive) one mile long natural entrance, elevators take you down (and up) 750 feet to the prettiest part. Areas that used to be untouched for millions of years and then took hours of spelunking to get to can now be visited in a wheelchair and they even have flush toilets and a lunch room down there. Some people argue that they destroyed the cave by making it so accessible. Obviously, they had to blast rocks and destroy formations to build the elevators and walkways and to install the lighting system. But I have to admit: There is no way we would ever get to see this if the cave were still in it’s natural state. And not all is lost: I feel the National Park Service does a very good job protecting the cave for future generations. There’s also another cave in the Guadalupe Mountains that is at least 140 miles long and only accessible to scientists and to serious and responsible cavers. Apparently, they are finding bacteria in these caves that they hope will help cure cancer one day. So I am glad that Carlsbad Cavern was made so accessible and I am glad that other caves are not.

I guess we are not the only ones who found their favorite cave here.

The Carlsbad Caverns are popular not just with the humans, but also with bats. Up to a million bats spend their summer days in one of the caves near the natural entrance. And their nightly flight out of the cave around sunset is so predictable that they built an amphitheater and schedule a ranger program every night during the summer. And sure enough, after about half an hour, the bats started to stream out of the cave. This is quite a sight! Even the experts have a hard time counting, but we estimate at least a hundred bats per second, so over hour or so before it got too dark we must have seen several hundred thousands of bats going out for their nighttime hunt. No wonder we haven’t had a big problems with mosquitoes here. They don’t allow any phones or cameras during the bat flight: Possibly to not disturb the bats, but maybe also to get 500 people to enjoy nature rather than staring at their little screens. I actually appreciated that, the pictures would not have done this spectacle justice anyway.

I have one more way to convey how much we enjoyed the Carlsbad Caverns NP: We loved it so much that the next day, we decided to do pretty much the same thing one more time: We took the elevator down to the Big Room, this time with an audio guide. We took twice as long going around the second time and hiked out the natural entrance again. With so many things we still want to see and do, it really means something, if we decide to do the same thing two days in a row.  

Now we are in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, just a few miles from Carlsbad, but back in Texas. We already did one very nice hike to “Devils Hall”. Tomorrow we are attempting to climb Guadalupe Peak, with 8751 feet the tallest mountain in Texas. With 3000 feet elevation gain, that’s quite a challenge for us, but since we are not getting any younger, we might as well do it now, while we still can. And don’t feel sorry for Sandra, I did not push her to do this hike, she was the instigator. But you’ll have to wait until the next update to see whether she gets all the credit or all the blame.

Aloha & Howdy from Texas,

Chris & Sandra

We suggest you Do mess around in Texas (and Mexico)

Aloha all,

if you made it all the way to the end of the last post (or at least looked at the picture), you might have had a deja vu moment when you read the newspaper the next morning. At least if you live in West Texas and read the ‘Hondo Anvil Herald’. We actually made it into the newspaper there:

Our road trip is now officially a "Happening"!

And I don’t want to hear any jokes about how little there must be happening in Castroville if two Germans traveling through town make it to the top of the “Happenings” page in the local newspaper. Because meeting our new friends was a big deal to us, too…even though there was plenty else happening on our road trip this week. 

So read on if you want to read about our bear encounter, our mountain climbing adventure and our little side trip to Mexico.

The newspaper mentions that we are traveling through America to see Presidential Libraries. While that is correct, there are none of those in West Texas and we had already been to LBJ’s home. But we did find an interesting little museum about Governor Dolph Briscoe and his political mentor “Cactus Jack” Garner, who was at least vice president under FDR for the first two terms. I also want to report on the continuing adventures with our new friends from Castroville that did not make the newspaper: Elisa and her mom actually drove all the way to Uvalde to meet us again. We had a lovely 3 hour lunch together and then got a tour of the Old Opera House in Uvalde. Even though she did not go up the stairs, the trip turned out to be a little much for 92 year old Dorothy. Elisa already had my favorite quote of the road trip when she first greeted us with “It will be so much more fun talking to you than ordering this John Deer tractor!”. But when her mom became a little confused, she also spoke my second favorite quote of this trip. As the loving daughter and caregiver she is, Elisa was concerned about her mom and said: “Mom, look at me. What day is it today?” and quickly added: “Oh well, forget about that - I have no clue what day it is myself!”. Dorothy happily recovered soon thereafter. Let’s just say that if we are aging as well as she is, I am not going to be too concerned if I don’t know what day it is 44 years from now, when I am her age.

I want to be like Dorothy when I am 92 in 2062.

Sometimes we pick a campground just because there’s a good deal. We did not even think about the name “Fort Clark RV Park” until we arrived and noticed that it was in an actual old fort. Our friendly campground host told me that Fort Clark was established in 1849 as the most western outpost after Texas became a state. Today, it is mostly a retirement and snow bird community (or “Winter Texans” as they are called here). When he noticed that I was actually interested in the history, he suggested we should call Phil, the president of the Fort Clark Historical Society, to open up the Fort Clark Museum for us. Sure enough, Phil was just as happy to open the museum for us as we were happy to get a privat two hour tour. We learnt that Fort Clark was mostly established to fight “hostile Indians” (even though it can obviously be argued who the ‘hostiles’ were!). The fort played a smaller role during the civil war and as a training post for both world wars. 

We love all the volunteers, who bring historical places alive,
 like Phil at Fort Clark.

Phil even invited us to the meeting of the Historical Society the next morning where we watched an interesting film about the Texas Rangers…the actual rangers, not the baseball team. We also took advantage that Fort Clark has a huge spring fed swimming pool, a shuffle board and a disc golf course. Maybe not the most exciting course we ever played, but a fox came by to make things more interesting. 

We thought Memorial Day weekend could get a little busier. But we were almost the only ones in the interesting Whitehead Memorial Museum in Del Rio and at the campground at the Amistad Reservoir. I guess there are two ways to avoid the crowds: Travel at the right time or to the right places. The temperatures might be cooler earlier in the spring, but we enjoy how uncrowded even some of the better known places are.

The eccentric Whitehead Memorial Museum in Del Rio, TX

We have seen a few petroglyphs before, but the rock art at the Seminole Canyon State Park is some of the best we have seen. Even better that our guide Jack seemed to know everything about the paintings, the history, the geology, the flora & fauna and even about spear throwing, which he demonstrated quite impressively. 

Rock art at the Seminole Canyon State Park

In the afternoon, we did our first bigger hike of this trip along the Seminole Canyon rim to the Rio Grande, we met a nice couple, saw Mexico and got back to Joy just in time before the thunderstorm started. That didn’t last long and was followed by a perfect sunset for our almost daily BBQ dinner.

We love Joy and she poses so nicely!

Our only stop the next day was at the Judge Roy Bean Museum and visitor center in Langtry. In case you haven’t heard of Judge Roy Bean: He was an eccentric saloon keeper and Justice of the Peace, usually performing both duties at the same time by holding court in his saloon, which we were able to visit. He called himself “The Law West of the Pecos” and apparently one of his favorite penalty was to order law breakers to buy a round of drinks for everybody, including his pet bear.

The saloon that doubled as a courthouse in Langtry, TX

From there all the way to Big Bend National Park, even we will agree, there is not that much to see, even though the scenery was more interesting than we expected. But we did spend a lovely evening at the RV Park in Marathon, TX. There might not be much to see there, but there are plenty of nice people to talk to: First our friendly neighbor at the campsite, then at the super fun White Buffalo Bar at the Gage Hotel and then with fellow travelers at the fireplace of the campground. Fun and friendly folk all the way around.

We spent the last three days in Big Bend National Park. Climbing to Emory Peak, the highest point in the park, was literally and figuratively the high point for us. We got lucky with relatively cool weather and a little cloud cover, but the 10 mile hike with 2600 feet elevation gain was still quite the accomplishment for us, especially with an extra half mile of rock climbing to get to the actual peak. But what a view! We felt like we were at the top of the world, 360 degrees of Wow!

At the top of Emory Peak, the highest point of Big Bend NP

The Lost Mine Trail the next day was almost as scenic and a lot easier. Except that only half a mile from the trailhead, we encountered a black bear with three little cubs just next to the trail. We kept our distance since we know how protective momma bears can be. We were almost ready to turn around since she did not move away from the trail. But a large family of other humans came, which made passage a lot safer. First by making enough noise to get the bears to move up the hill, but also by the fact that they had young children. You know what they say: “You don’t have to outrun the bear, just the slowest member of your group.”

Probably as close as you ever want to get to a bear with cubs in the wild.

Thankfully, with the help of that family, we got to complete the hike after all. It would have been a shame missing out on this great little gem of a hike. On the way back, we hiked with a young journalist traveling all of the Mexican border to research how local coverage of the border differs from national coverage. Not a bad job that includes an office like this:

Dramatic scenery on the Lost Mine Trail in Big Bend NP

One of the advantages of traveling with a lot of time is that we were able to spend a couple of days in the cooler, higher elevations of the park until the lower, hotter areas cooled down at least a little bit. The Rio Grande campground was surprisingly comfortable and there is a great nature trail to a hill to watch the sun set over the Rio Grande. It’s a great place to contemplate where exactly we should build the wall here:

Mexico in the back, the US in the front....and such serenity!

Today, we did a short walk along the Rio Grande into the Boquillas Canyon and we took a quick side trip to Mexico. Big Bend is the only national park with an official border crossing. The approximately 200 residents of the very remote town of Boquillas on the Mexican side seem to depend heavily on the few dozen visitors (I assume more in the winter) who make the trip from Big Bend. It is all very pleasantly organized: A row boat takes you to Mexico for $5 round trip and a donkey takes you into town for $5 round trip. 

At $2.50 each way, the donkey ride was basically the cost of a bus fare.

We got a short tour of the village; overall it looks colorful, but a bit 3rd world. For example, there are no paved roads and the town shares one single phone line. Some people have cell phones, but there is no service. However, a few years ago they got a solar power plant that powers the whole town, including batteries to get them through the night. Obviously a little easier on a small scale, but still very impressive for such a remote place. The restaurant we chose (there are only two and they are owned by the same family) was also surprisingly pleasant. With the next real store over 150 miles away, of course you can’t expect a gourmet meal, but the margaritas were cold, the food was good and everybody was friendly.

Lunch in Boquillas, Mexico

We’ll have to see more of Mexico some day, since obviously, this does not really count as seeing Mexico, but it was a much more pleasant experience than Tijuana, the only other place we were in Mexico for a few hours many years ago. I was really impressed by the row boat and donkey shuttle service. I don’t quite understand why there seem to be several times as many souvenir stands as daily visitors, all selling practically the same simple embroidery art. But then again, only one of them had the cutest image of the donkey Sandra rode. So we actually brought home a little souvenir from our quick side trip to Mexico, even though our main purpose was to drink a couple of margaritas there. 

Back in the US, we saw a fridge that was about to be loaded on the little row boat heading for Boquillas, but Joy could not make the journey, so we will continue our tour north of the border.

One of Joy's favorite overnight spots at the Rio Grande campground 

For the second night at Rio Grande Village, we opted for the less scenic RV Park with hook ups, due to the heat. We are not huge fans of air conditioning…until it’s over 100 degrees. Then a thunderstorm came through, cooled things down and added this nice little lake as a new campground feature:

Joy reflecting in the newest lake in Big Bend NP

Hola from the Rio Grande, where all the people are friendly, all the nature is majestic and walls seem to be even less necessary than average.

Chris & Sandra