Big Bend National Park Day 2 & 3

Posted by hankster

I didn't update yesterday so I'll just put two days of info in one update.

The weather was cloudy and hazy all day, not the best weather for picture taking. The main focus of yesterdays outing was to visit the Castolon area along with Santa Elena Canyon. To me this is the most interesting part of Big Bend with some of the most scenic areas. The drive was great with many steep curvy roads, huge mountain cliffs and deep gorges. There are a large number of paved side roads to scenic overlooks and short hikes to interesting features that I just had to do.

The round trip may have been maybe 100 miles but it took me 6 hours to do everything that was "easy" to do. I still have not done any of the dirt road routes and it looks like I may not get to do that now.... more on that later. I can't say enough about this drive and if you only have a day or two to spend in Big Bend, take the drive to Castolon, Santa Elena Canyon and Chisos Basin. While the rest of the park is interesting, it pales in comparion.

It rained all last night and today was still very cloudy with a lot of very low clouds. Just because the weather is cloudy is no reason not to go to the park as it can give a very different look to the park. Today I took the long drive to Persimmon Gap and the North Entrance to the park. This is a long drive and is mostly through the lower desert plains. What saved today's drive was the low hanging clouds that shrouded the mountains. Most times they would wrap around them letting the peaks poke their way out of the top. You could just sit there and watch as the clouds swirled over the edges of the mountain sides changing shape and form as they moved. If you enjoyed seeing animals in cloiud formations when you were a kid, you would have loved this.

I got back to the campground around 3pm. On my drive back it looked like a storm was brewing so I wasn't disappointed that I was leaving Big Bend early. About 30 minutes after I got back, those storm clouds roared overhead. The winds picked up and the rain poured down so hard I couldn't hardly see the RV parked only 20 feet away. Me and Spudy sat there, rock and rolling in the wind as the rain pounding on the RV was so loud I gave up listening to the TV. About 10 minutes later it all passed and the sun came out with a rainbow to the east. That also means this nice desert campground is a muddy mess. I took Spud for a walk afterwards and had to carry him to the shower to wash off his feet.

About 15 minutes after the storm passed, the electric went out. It was out for miles around. No electric, no water, no cell service, nothing. Then the water came back on, then the cell service, but still no electric. My RV has battery backup so I had lights, water and heat but that would only last through the night if the electric didn't come back on. About 7pm the electric can back on so we are all set.... except for the muddy campground. I'll live with it, that's the adventure of camping. At least I'm dry and not in a tent!

See pictures of Day 2 and Day 3 of my trip into Big Bend.