There’s a weird number of people who have no idea where Big Bend National Park is, and we were some of them until about a month ago. When we told an older couple who saw us packing up in San Antonio where we were headed, they thought it was in California. I responded, “no, the… ::hand gesture making a “U” shape:: …droopy part of Texas.” And she knew what I meant. I guess I speak the older couple full-time RVers’ language fluently now. Bawn-jor-no.

We were actually able to get our asses out of bed and into the park by 9am-ish. Our first goal was Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive which takes you down to the Mexican border. It was early enough that the fog hadn’t burned through yet.

You take this down about 30 miles until you get to Santa Elena Canyon Trailwhich basically is a giant natural version of Trump’s border wall. You literally stand on one side of the Rio Grande River, and the other side is a giant cliff that lives in Mexico.

The river cuts through this wall of rock and creates a valley that you walk down a bit into it. The giant walls of the cliffs surround you and it’s pretty awesome. They even let you get that pensive, “looking off into the distance” shot.

Then we made the 30 mile drive back and took the turn headed to the visitor’s center where we got some lunch and hit the next trailhead.

We ended up on the Window Trail, about a 5 mile roundtrip hike to a narrow gap in the rock that overlooks this crazy valley.

Unfortunately for those of us less aerobically gifted, it’s completely downhill the whole way out to the edge, so coming back was amaaaaazing. I think I made it back without passing out. Pretty sure. Probably. Not.

Once we got back to the truck we called it a day and met this sunset over our camper.

So look at that, Jenny and I took pictures! All on our own!

Headed out tomorrow morning to El Paso for a couple of days where we’ll be mostly laying low again. We’re reaching the part of the country where cities are mostly transit stops to the more interesting stuff, especially now that there’s not much we could do in a city anyways.

Later in the week we were doing an overnight in a casino parking lot. (Yes, it’s a thing.) I forgot about it, and went “oh, that’s right, I forgot I can play poker this week.” Then I immediately went “oh, that’s right, I forgot I CAN’T play poker this week.”

Then I saw the casino was closed altogether, and we probably can’t even stay there anyways. We also had our first campsite cancellation for mid-April. So some more adventure thrown in with all the adventure. We’ll figure it out.

Onward!