Road Trip 2025: Day 25

I could not fall asleep last night. I don’t know why considering I was tired. It wasn’t until shortly before the alarm went off that I finally drifted off to sleep. Needless to say, I am really groggy this morning. We were up before the sun so we could get in a short hike near the Rio Grande before it gets too hot and Kati starts to melt. The Rio Grande village is in the park, but it’s an hour drive from where we are camping. Even though we didn’t see the sun rise, as we drove, the sky was a beautiful blend of pinks and oranges and blues. At one point, we saw two coyotes cross the road. That may have been the most exciting part of our morning.

We walked the 1.4 mile Boquillas Canyon Trail which led us down to the Rio Grande. It was definitely more of a walk than a hike. The drought has parched the river bank. Deep cracks made walking a bit difficult. Kati said it was like walking on tiles before the grout was put down. However, as G3 started to approach the river, parched earth gave way to a clay like mud and he stepped right in it with both feet. His crocks and feet are completely coated with it.

I am annoyed that we left our passports at home. It would have been fun to dip into Mexico for the day, but coming this far south had not been on our itinerary. Next time, I will not leave home to travel without my passport. I learned my lesson. The Rio Grande does not look very grand. Lack of rain has left the water level low. One does not need to be a strong swimmer to cross, at least not where we were.

Big Bend National Park—which is larger than the state of Rhode Island—gets its name from the big bend in the Rio Grande. It’s where mountains, desert, and river converge. Spanish explorers deemed it uninhabitable land, but people did reside here for thousands of years. First, Native Americans lived here, followed by Mexican settlers. It is home to 59 different types of cacti, 450 species of birds, and 25 mountain lions. The Chisos Mountains are the only mountain range in the United States that are located entirely within a national park. While the Chihuahuan Desert gets only between five and eleven inches of rain per year, the mountains get almost twice that amount. The Rio Grande has spent millions of years carving three canyons—in the park—through the limestone, limestone that holds fossils from a time when this area was an ocean.

To escape the 111 degree heat, Kati wanted to take a trip into town, so we went to Terlingua Ghostown. Once upon a time, it was a mining town. Now it caters to tourists, although there wasn’t all that much to do there. it’s a desolate area in the desert. We stopped in a gift shop that sold a wide plethora of things from knives to tee-shirts to Day of the Dead skulls, but nothing worth buying. We then went to High Sierra Bar & Grill for lunch. It was a quaint restaurant, but completely dead. We were the only ones there. I assume at night, and during peak season at the park (which this is not), more people stop in to eat.

G3 and I both love water. We spent our formative years at the beach in the summer, spending almost as much time in the water as on land. As fabulous as this summer has been, we’ve both missed the water. We hadn’t gone swimming once, which was too much for the both of us. Especially spending so much time in the desert, all we wanted to do was launch our bodies into water. Well, the beautiful thing about this desert here in Big Bend is it comes with a river. Yep, G3 and I went swimming in the Rio Grande—near the Cottonwood campground—and what’s more exciting—we swam to Mexico and stood on Mexican territory. Maybe swam is too strong of a word. Remember, water levels are low. The water wasn’t deep enough to swim. We walked through the water—it never got much higher than our knees—to Mexico, and then, we submerged our bodies in the river. It was exceptionally refreshing, considering it was 116 degrees.

By 5:10, it had cooled to 99 degrees in the Chisos Basin. G3 said he was up for a hike, so he and I set out on the five mile Window Trail. It is an out and back hike, and the first half had us descending into the valley. The terrain was a mix of desert and forest. And after spending most of the day in the desert, it seemed strange to see trees. Early on it rained—a light shower that didn’t last long. But I didn’t mind because it cooled us off a bit.

The trail ended at a pretty overlook, one that resembled a giant’s ruined door more than a window. The overlook must once upon a time have been a waterfall. The rock upon which we sat was polished smooth, and to get there, we had to cross a spring. If the spring had been a rushing river, it would have followed our path right over the side of the rock we were on. I was happy for G3’s company this evening. Hiking with someone is always preferable to hiking alone, even if G3 did periodically take off and run ahead of me.

We got back in time to watch the sunset with Kati from the same place we watched it yesterday. There were fewer clouds but the sunset was still pretty. Once again, I am sitting out alone at the campsite. The others have gone to sleep, but the night is too perfect not to be outside. The wind is kicking up so that the temperature is comfortable. The moon is hovering above the mountains, but for a dark sky, there aren’t many stars.