BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK

We spent a few days in Big Bend NP seeing as much as we could.  We camped in the high country as it was way too hot for us down by the Rio Grande River.  The day before we left they had temperatures of 105 degrees in the low elevations. That would have made us melt.  We did go down there in different places.  Got to see a few birds that I have never seen before so that was fun.  Didn’t take as many pictures as I had hoped – especially of the birds because most of the ones were hanging around the campground.  One woodpecker was pecking on a power pole, not what I would consider a good picture.  Did one pretty long loop drive with the jeep on a dirt road, and it was a little rough and pretty warm.

We are headed north right now and will spend a few days in the northwest corner of Oklahoma and south east corner of Colorado checking out some national grasslands and a few state parks. 

The  ocotillos were in bloom but had no leaves indicating that there was hardly any moisture over the winter.

The Rio Grande flows through this canyon right above the ocotillo.

Zeph always watching where we are going.

Border Security?  These trinkets are brought across the Rio Grande from the Mexican side by folks trying to sell them to the tourists.  If you yell at them, they then wade across and bargain with you or you can just leave money in the plastic cup.

The prickly pears were really in bloom.

View from of our campsite.

The Visitor Center and gift shop at Castolon.

Santa Elena Canyon where the Rio Grande comes out of the mountains.

Lots of fossils in the rocks.

View of the Rio Grande leaving the canyon headed east.

A pretty hedgehog.

Lots of turtles in the river and lots of flies on the river.

Looking west upriver.

Everything is big in Texas as seen by this yucca and the occotillo in front of the jeep.

Some of the landscape.

This guy raised a family in the building below which is only about 4 feet in height.

Lots of colors in the desert.