Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand
Just like that river twisting through a dusty land
And when she shines she really shows you all she can
Oh Rio, Rio dance across the Rio Grande
-Rio by Duran Duran
The only National Park in the South Central US is ‘The Big Bend’. It is the most remote and diverse National Park where desert, mountains, and river converge and one of the last dark skies that haven’t been “lit up” by man’s light pollution. We humans are afraid of the dark and we have been trained that way. We try to ‘light up’ the darkness– thinking it will make us safer. But all the light that is created at night only serves to confuse nature, ourselves included.
Rio, the twisty Rio Grande runs for 118 miles separating the park from Mexico, or the USA from Mexico. Lisa and I can’t figure out how anyone would build a fence or wall out of fear along this grandeur. Sometimes the river roars and sometimes it barely moves as it snakes its way through the Chisos mountain range and the Chihuahuan Desert; ebbing and following with nature’s seasons.
Big Bend in west Texas is big– just like the state itself. It takes a long time to reach the park. The nearest small cities are Alpine, Marathon and the bigger Midland (not counting Terlingua and Lajites). When we first came here over 15 years ago, we flew into Midland and drove a rental car down. Today we are chasing sunsets again– enjoying the last hour or so of day light where long shadows unleash the beauty – trapped the harsh mid-day sun. We hit the furthest out NPS welcome station and flash our year pass and find out there are spots open at all three camp grounds and we just have to decide over the next 30 miles which way we want to go. It is not normally like this at this time of year, but something amazing just happened.
It snowed, for the first time in 2 years and feels like a magical winter wonderland. Desert plants are blooming out of season and everything seems lush and bright.
We decided to camp in the Chisos Basin because it is usually the most difficult campground to get in to this time of year. Maybe the snow scared some folks away because there were still a handful of spaces when we got there. Of course, RVs longer than 24′ can’t get through the twisty campground entrance roads. The view in the basin was outstanding. Douglas even got to go to the Basin Amphitheater in 30ish degreee weather at night and watch a Ranger tell him all about dark skies and the park. He came back to the camper nearly frozen!
This Class B Van does require winterization- we’ve read about folks up north draining their tanks, etc. Since it was definitely going to be below freezing in the basin we were a bit concerned…. living on propane and low temperatures is a thin line, but we came through it okay. The next morning we decided to do the Lost Mine hike in the mountains, but after walking up hill on ice for about 70 yards whilst wearing only sneakers, we decided to turn around and work on a plan B and choose another part of this vast park to camp in next!
We decide to head towards Rio Grande Village where they have full hook-ups but only 25 spots. When we last checked in with the ranger they were completely full!
