Big Bend National Park

This has been an amazing experience in Big Bend National Park with a three night stay at Stillwell Store & RV Park off of TX FM 2627 outside the park to the north in southern Texas. We loved the vast expanses around our campsite, our taciturn host, our shore power hookup, and incredible starry skies. Over the course of three days we visited three of the four Visitors Centers, absorbed valuable information from the park video at Panther Junction, participated in ranger talks, immersed ourselves in the beauty and natural history of the desert, the mountains, and the river – the three major ecosystems found inside the park boundaries, and learned so much about the geology, the flora, and the fauna here. We saw roadrunners and javelinas, visited with a fellow T@B camper, picnicked at the historic Daniels Ranch along the Rio Grande River and gazed over into Mexico. We admired the Mexican craft items left for sale on the honor system but heeded the NPS admonition to not purchase any in this manner. We gazed out over the desert landscape from a bluff above the fossil beds and stared gape-jawed at the remains and reconstructions of absolutely huge animals who once swam, walked, and flew here. We made our way past a historic resort to some thermal hot springs along the river one day then the next day we were up in the Chisos Mountains dining at the soon to be renovated Chisos Mountain Lodge. We didn’t get to see it all this trip, we always need to save something for next time and the time after. Actually this was a next time. Our first trip was an overnight in the Chisos Campground in August 1974 that involved a floorless canvas tent, air mattresses, a flash flood, a visit to Santa Eleña Canyon, some sticky mud and a ruined set of binoculars. Despite the misadventures we we incredibly impressed and vowed to come back. And we intend to return yet again.