November 9th we drove 150 miles south on US385 to Big Bend National Park. Here is a view on the way south before the park:
We went to the no hookup area of Rio Grande Village Campground, $10/night, and stayed four nights. Here is our campsite:
We thought we could not choose a reservable site, but reservations do not start until November 15th. Our site worked and we could use our satellite dish there.
At the Rio Grande Village Visitors Center they recommended taking the Nature Trail by the campground for sunset, so we did. Here are our photos from Sunset November 9th..
November 10th we decided to drive to the farthest point in the park and work our way back. We headed west to Study Butte, just outside the West Entrance. Study is pronounced like "Stoo-dy" not like "study for a test". On the road we looked out and said, "that looks like badlands" and there was a turn off with an exhibit that said it was "badlands". Here is a picture which doesn't do it justice:
We love the purple fringed prickly pear cactus
We drove into Study Butte and noted the restaurants and RV parks if we wanted to come back and stay in that area. Then we headed back and took the Old Maverick Road, which is dirt.
Jamal's Jacal is on the road, a house that a person named Jamal lived in:
We did see one roadrunner. The dirt road ended and we were back on pavement, very close to the Santa Elena Canyon Trail and Picnic area.
We had a picnic lunch at the Santa Elena Canyon trailhead and then took the trail. Here are our pictures on the Santa Elena Canyon Trail.
We drove back to Rio Grande Village stopping at every stop until we ran out of time. Our afternoon journey and pictures on November 10
November 11th we drove up to Chisos and then backtracked to where we had to stop being tourists the day before. Pictures from November 11
This is about the most minimally converted bus we had ever seen. It was close to us in the campground.
On November 12th we toured close to the campground, Boquillas Canyon was a short drive away. Pictures of Boquillas Canyon Part 1 Part 2