Don’t Mess With Texas

Working our way along the gulf coast, we spent 4 nights on the islands off of Corpus Christi in Texas. We split our time between Mustang Island State Park and Padre Island National Seashore. Both parks offered the opportunity to camp right on the beach but due to high tides and soft sand, we decided to take a campsite at each park. We spent lots of time enjoying the beach and riding our bikes along the beach. The girls participated in a beach cleanup to help them earn their Junior Ranger badges at Padre Island Nation Park.

• 

One night on the island, Trevor reconnected with his grade 5 & 6 teacher, Mr. Simmons who lives on Padre Island and invited our family over for dinner. Paul and Holly were wonderful hosts and we had a fun evening getting to know more about living in this part of Texas, and Trevor’s public school days in Port Burwell.

After the island, we made our way across the mainland part of south Texas. We made a quick overnight stop in Choke Canyon State Park and then continued on to Seminole Canyon State Park. Near Del Rio we were stopped in a boarder patrol inspection area along the side of the highway- seems to be a common occurrence in this area. Our plan was to camp at Seminole Canyon but the camping was closed for renovations. Instead we had lunch at the park and hiked down in the canyon to see the 4000 year old pictographs painted on the walls and ceilings of the cave. We found a private campground in Sanderson and stayed the night since it was getting dark and too far to continue on to Big Bend National Park.

Big Bend National Park

We arrived at the park on Thursday morning at 10 am to be told at the inital gate that the park was full and we wouldn’t be able to camp in the park tonight. This park is huge, it takes 2 hours to drive from the inital gate to the campground. We decided to go into the park anyway and do some hiking and have lunch and then figure out the camping plan late in the day. We visited a fantastic fossil exhibit along the drive down to the river, that showed the history of the area and volcanic activity and dinousaurs that once lived in this area. We drove down to Santa Elena Canyon and hiked a spectacular canyon. The walls of the canyon are 1500 feet high and divided by the Rio Grande River. One side of the canyon is Mexico and the other is the US. After the hike, we took a drive through Cottonwood campground around 4 pm to find that they have a site that isn’t released until 5 pm. We managed to get a site after all. The stars were so bright under the dark sky.

• 

• 

• 

We got up the next morning before sunrise to drive to the Rio Grande Campground and be there first thing to try and secure a campsite in that area. We saw the sunrise and we did the winding hour long drive to the Rio Grande Village campground. Sunrise over the mountains was so beautiful with stunning red colours. We got a campsite and enjoyed the day hiking in Bouquillas Canyon and on the nature trail in Rio Grande Campground which gave a 360 degree view of the Sierra del Carmen mountain range in Mexico and the Chisos Mountains in Texas. The view was spectacular! Roadrunners motored all over the campground, which was exciting since we had never seen a real roadrunner before.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Both campsites at the park had metal boxes on them to store food to keep away black bears and javelinas (pig like animals that are actually part of the hippopotamus family). You know what they say about kids and boxes….you buy them a toy and all they want to do is play with the box. Well, the bear box proved to be the most popular toy in both of the campgrounds. The girls did homework in the box, ate breakfast in the box, played on top and inside of the boxes inventing all types of games. I am always amazed at how they invent games out of everyday items and their imaginations rather than get out actual toys to play with. At the previous campgrounds two bungee cords were perfect for hours of playing and tying up the “robbers”.

• 

• 

We started off the next morning by walking out to the Hot Springs. The hot springs are found a quarter mile down a path along the Rio Grande where there are ruins of an old hotel. The water was HOT and we had a quick dip in the Rio Grande to cool off. We watched a young man from Mexico catch two catfish using a handline while we were at the springs and some horses stopped up river to have a drink. The setting was surreal.

• 

• 

• 

Later that afternoon we got a water day use permit (free but required if you want to go out on the river) and inflated the kayaks and spent a few hours in the afternoon doing a boomerang trip on the Rio Grande. The current was strong and a good workout paddling upstream but a relaxing float back down the river. The views of the mountains were fantastic and it was such a great place to be on such a hot day.

• 

• 

That evening we sat out under the stars enjoying a cold beverage when we heard a rustling noise beside the campsite. We shone our flashlight across the site and saw a coyote sauntering across our campsite. Our trip to Big Bend was complete now that we saw both the coyote and the roadrunner.