Where was I? Oh yeah, into 'the park'.
Big Bend National Park, on the border of Texas and Mexico. Not a place that sees much traffic during the summer months because of the extreme heat conditions, but we weren't scared. We carry our own water.... and snacks.
This view is called The Window. I'm not afraid to ask people if they would like for me to take a picture of their group in exchange for them to take a picture of our group.
Little do they know, I'm a crappy photographer!
At the Chisos Basin.
On the road to
Terlingua.
Don't let the website fool you, Terlingua looks like Hell.
Knitting on the bank of the Rio Grande River. I probably could have swam/wadded across to Mexico.
Crossing the Pecos River. As kids, our family used to camp at the headwaters of the Pecos River high in the mountains of New Mexico. 30+ years ago I would drive all over West Texas delivering Oil Field parts to Gas Plants. On my deliveries I'd cross back and forth over a tiny dried up stream that would proudly be marked as The Pecos River. This looks like the Mississippi compared to that tiny trickle of water.
Di and I did a selfie!
We picked these figs on a morning walk around the Amistad Acres where Mike and Di had the 5th wheel camper parked. The figs were the size of lemons!
I don't know why I didn't end up with any pictures while on
Lake Amistad, I guess we were just boating along too fast or we
were in the water.
The Pecos River has oodles of canyons and cuts running into it. If you didn't know this river it would be easy to get lost and turned around. This is the split between the river on the left and Deadman's Canyon on the right. We took Deadman's, more shade, it was in the upper 90's. Luckily Mike knew his way around
even though the river was down by 8 to 10 feet and it had been years since he'd been on it.
The canyons are beautiful. Some places are wide with room for goats and sheep to graze.
There are places where you can see Native American cliff drawings.
Other areas are straight up!
So peaceful! So quiet. We drifted along, lost in our own thoughts.
Our Captain and beer handler.
The wind blows through these canyons creating scooped out spaces in the rock called wind caves. Some are so big that you can camp in them... Mike and his buddies used to do this years ago.
This is the train trestle still in use today. That little house-like structure is the old pump station from the 1800's when the trains ran on steam. The water from the river would be pumped up to the trains on the trestle. It has been underwater for a long time, and Mike was amazed to see it almost completely above water.
This is the vehicle bridge otherwise known as The Pecos High Bridge. Di and I took our selfie from the look-out at the end of the bridge on the far left.
This picture was taken from the top of the boat ramp. As Di and I walked up the ramp to get the truck and trailer we noticed goats climbing on the side of the canyon wall. Of course I didn't have my phone/camera. If you look REALLY close, you can see a black goat on a rock just above the water, he's almost in the shadow of the cliff.
On the left of this shot you can see the rock wall that edged the old highway that wound it's way down the bank of the river. There used to be a lower bridge to cross by.
It linked up with the right side of the river, which is now used as the boat ramp. This was the steepest and longest boat ramp I had ever been on and the backing up job that Di did was stupendous! Have you ever backed an empty boat trailer? You can't even see it!
This is where the Pecos meets the Rio Grande. The Pecos is in the foreground and the Rio Grande is in the back coming from behind the cliff. That is Mexico on the far side of the Rio Grande.
There was a HUGE Border Patrol presence in the area. We saw several boats on Lake Amistad, and then checking for sunken rubber rafts and such on the Pecos. They patrolled by car through the neighborhoods on the lake and down the dirt roads leading to them, checking for tracks and footprints.
We returned back to the ranch Monday. I snapped this picture before I left for home Tuesday Morning. It's the bathroom at Mike and Di's house! So zen! That huge window in the steam shower looks out onto the pool and the mesas beyond. Just beautiful!
Another great vacation for the books thanks to Michael and Di.
