Big Bend was a pretty unique stop for a number of reasons, Tex-snow-pocalypse being just one of them. Another was our accommodations - the Super Trailer! Another was that fact that this is our first stay where we actually got to know our hosts. Mark and Michelle Chiles are native Texans who, in retirement, decided it would be fun to use their trailer to host visitors at their ranch. Their house is immediately adjacent to the trailer, and, I'll be honest, this left me a little on edge at first. But, they were clear when we arrived that they loved having visitors but that they would give us as much company or privacy as we wanted. Anyone who knows Rachel and I knows we're not the type to casually sit down and shoot the bull with strangers for fun. However, after 10 minutes of conversation with them, they felt like old friends.
Each night, we would return to the ranch after a long day and, before dinner, sit out on the porch and have a nice, socially-distanced visit with Mark and Michelle (FYI, the rifle above Nathan's head is a BB gun that Mark uses to shoo javelinas away from their cactus garden).
Equally exciting were our visits with the Chiles' non-human neighbors.
That's a javelina, aka, a wild desert pig or peccary.
A family of gray foxes.
And what seemed like a whole herd of mule deer. It was like a whole zoo, right in the front yard!
Even the park was a unique experience, which, after all the National Parks we've seen, is really saying something. Big Bend is one of the most remote parks in the lower 48, more distant from population centers than other heavy-hitters like Death Valley and Yellowstone. And, it contains the gigantic Chisos range, which adds a little elevation to otherwise (generally) flat Texas. It's southern border also happens to be an international border, with only the Rio Grande lying between the park and Mexico.
We started our exploration by heading toward the mountains, where there was still a little snow on the ground.
The hike along the Lost Mine Trail, with about 1,200 feet of elevation gain, was tiring but amazing.
After our hike and a light lunch, we headed to the park's eastern border for our first glimpse of the Rio Grande and an unobstructed view into Mexico.
Nathan tried to skip a stone across the international border. Still not sure if that's legal ...
On Wednesday, we changed things up and tried a rambling cross-desert trek on the Mule Ears Trail. Those are the mules ears back there in the distance.
It was a welcome change from the hard-core climbing of the previous day.
We then headed back down to the Rio Grande for an amazing hike in Santa Elena Canyon.
By Wednesday night we were ready for some smooth sailing. The weather forecast called for a little rain in the evening, and, sure enough, we could hear the raindrops pounding on our roof for most of the night. When we awoke on Thursday before dawn, things were quiet again. We took this to mean the rain had stopped. And, in fact, it had, but not because the skies had cleared. It had turned into snow!
Undaunted, we packed up the car, headed down the dirt road toward the highway, and crossed our fingers.
Thankfully, by the time we reached Terlingua, the snow had turned to rain, and things started to feel a little less other-worldly. From there, we cut south, hugging the Rio Grande as it passed through Big Bend Ranch State Park. This park didn't have the title "National Park" attached to it, so it's considered a bit of a side-show to Big Bend NP; however, we'd received recommendations to visit from both our local hosts, and a friend of mine who used to be a National Park ranger in Texas. And, thank goodness we stopped for a brief hike because the scenery was undoubtedly as beautiful as anything we'd seen in Texas so far.
The rest of the day driving was fairly monotonous and uneventful, which, after all the winter weirdness, was fine by us! We passed in and out of the snow a few times as we headed north. We did a little shoe shopping outside of Marfa.
Just before dinner time, we crossed the state line into New Mexico and the Mountain Time Zone. Shortly after that, we were getting settled into our new home in Carlsbad and thanking our lucky stars that we were somewhere boring again.
Looking at the map, it's hard to believe that the circle is almost complete and that our trip is coming to an end.
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