Big Bend National Park, TX - Day 3

Saturday, February 13

Andi and I weren’t sure what kind of weather we’d find when we opened the curtains for the first time Saturday morning. Big Bend National Park is in a winter weather advisory for Sunday and Monday and forecasted to receive 1-3 inches of snow and ice with the storm system. The weather is all anyone can talk about around here these days. It’s rare for it to snow in southwest Texas, but it does happen. Fortunately, Saturday morning’s weather in the Chisos Mountains was mild. Outside temperatures were in the 30’s, but the air felt warmer with the humidity.

Chisos Mountain Road was closed for construction between the hours of 8am - 11am this morning, so we took our time getting ready for the day and then drove the RV about a mile away to the Chisos Mountain Lodge and Basin Store. Tory and Aden collected a stamp for their Junior Ranger booklets from the Visitor’s Center, then we set out for a two-mile hike on the basin loop trail.

After our hike, we drove down the mountain toward the west side of Big Bend National Park. All this talk of the incoming weather had us worried the roads might be icy, but luckily they were completely dry. A gorgeous frost covered plants and cactuses on each side of the road.

The landscape changed from mountains to huge towering canyons as we drove along. Big Bend National Park is often called “three parks in one” and it’s easy to see why as we drove through the park.

Andi reserved us a campsite for tonight at Cottonwood Campground, so we drove through the grounds to check it out. We saw three javelinas wandering around the campground! It’s so exciting to discover an animal we’ve never seen before. Javelinas look like pigs, but they’re actually members of the peccary family that live in the western part of Texas.

While javelinas look like pigs, they are actually nothing like them. Javelinas are omnivores and will eat just about anything, though most of their diet consists of prickly pear cactuses. The live together in herds and are typically not aggressive toward humans. The trio we saw in the campground was peacefully munching on grass.

Nearby, we drove through the historic Castolon area of the park so the kids could collect a stamp for their booklets at the visitor’s center. All around us were old building and interpretive signage describing the human history of Big Bend. Castolon was once a multi-cultural town with American ranchers and Mexican nationals coming together to raise families and build a life together. It wasn’t an easy life for them living in the desert.

We continued further down the road to Santa Elena Canyon. Andi and I wanted to do the short one-mile hike there, but the parking lot was busy which meant the trail was busy, too. Even though we’re outdoors, it can be hard to keep 6 ft. of distance from others if there’s too many people on a trail. We drove to the Santa Elena Canyon Overlook instead to take in the view of the canyon.

There are lots of short hikes on the west side of Big Bend. We opted to walk the grounds of the Sam Nail Ranch, an old homestead where a family once lived near the Cottonwood Creek. Only a shell of the adobe house remains today, but the windmill used to pump water for the farm is still functioning.

Even though we have a campsite reserved on the west side of the park tonight, Andi and I decided last-minute to make our way out of the park and stay in Marathon, TX tonight. The weather forecast hasn’t changed like we’d hoped for tomorrow and Monday which means snow and ice are on the way. We’re chasing after the warmest weather we can find in Texas which is likely the very southern most point of the state — about 8 hours away from where we are now. We figure we’d better get a move on.

Andi called to reserve us a campsite at the same campground we stayed at on our way into Big Bend National Park. Fortunately, they had a spot for us.

On our drive out of Big Bend National Park, we stopped by the Panther Junction Visitor’s Center so Tory and Aden could collect their Junior Ranger badges. They work hard to complete these packets, and it always makes me happy to see them earn these rewards.

It was about a 90-minute drive to the small town of Marathon. We checked into our campsite for the night, and then Andi and I went for a walk around the property so Tory and Aden could decorate the RV for my birthday. They excitedly yelled, “surprise!” when we returned to the RV a few minutes later, showering me with hugs and presents.

(The “super soft” birthday note in my card is an inside joke from this past summer. In July, Andi came home with a huge un-eaten ice cream cake from his friend’s 40th birthday party that said “Happy Super Soft 40th Birthday” on it. We ate that cake for two weeks and even used it to celebrate our friend’s birthday when he visited us at the cabin.)

Andi and I decided it’d be fun to go out to eat for my birthday dinner since we had the option to do so now. A few nights ago when we drove through Marathon, the Mexican restaurant in town looked really upscale and fancy from the outside with candles flickering and the lights dimmed low. Now that we were here, Andi and I had to laugh when this restaurant looked just like every other Mexican restaurant in America on the inside.

We had the entire restaurant to ourselves and had a really nice birthday dinner, just the four of us.

Back at camp, we sang Happy Birthday and ate a heart-shaped ice cream cake. We had an awesome time at Big Bend National Park and a fun birthday dinner in Marathon.

Tonight, temperatures are suppose to drop down into the teens and other people around camp are batting down the hatches wrapping tarps around the base of their RVs. We’re hoping to get to Del Rio, TX tomorrow before the precipitation starts in the afternoon.