Big Bend National Park is over 800,000 acres of remote desert and mountains in south Texas. The southern border of the park is defined by 244 miles of the Rio Grande River with Mexico on the other side. Big Bend National Park is the largest protected area of Chihuahuan Desert in the United States, and includes more than 1,200 species of plants, more than 450 species of birds, 56 species of reptiles, and 75 species of mammals. (nps, wiki)
We visited Big Bend NP in October 2009. We spent five days hiking in the park, and stayed in a cabin just outside the park in the small town of Study Butte. Following is a photo tour of our trip to Big Bend National Park.
Carro Castellan is a pretty mesa that rises 800 feet above the Chihuahuan Desert (whose name is pronounced like Chihuahua, the tiny dog breed).
Homer Wilson’s Blue Creek Ranch was headquarters for Wilson’s ranching operations in the early 1900s.
The Chisos Mountains dominate the interior of Big Bend National Park. Click the photo to see the panorama.
The weather was warm and sunny for all of our trip except for this one day when it was cold, cloudy and very windy. But the bad weather made for some interesting photography.
The Chihuahuan Desert Nature Trail has interpretive signs that explain the desert ecology. The Avery family settled here in 1904 because of the permanent spring. Before the park, Big Bend residents considered this to be the social center of the area, which included houses and a school.
Big Bend is full of giant open spaces as far as the eye can see.
We thought this was fog on the Rio Grande, but it turned out to be sand blowing in the strong winds.
A very windy, cold day at Big Bend.
Driving in Big Bend National Park at dusk, you see literally hundreds of tarantulas walking on the road.
Why did the spider cross the road?
Theresa ensures the tarantula makes it safely off the edge of the road.
The setting sun blazes the Chisos Mountains.
Sunset in Texas.
February 5th, 2012 at 1:45 am
[...] imagine wide-open desert full of cacti. This was certainly our experience when we visited Big Bend National Park in southern Texas along the Rio Grande River. But this park near the Gulf Coast 30 miles [...]