I took a three day trip with my son to visit Big Bend National Park, and boy
did we have some fun! Here are some photos from that wonderful journey to
the rugged Chihuahua desert!
This old house/saloon remains my all-time favorite
building. I found it in Alpine, where I stayed at a
locally-owned hotel as kind of a 'starting point' for
each day's adventures. The building is covered all
around wih tin,  has a thin pipe chimney, and a false
facade. Facing the train station in the oldest part of
Alpine, it makes me wonder if this great old building
was once a hotel.
Thousand year old pictographs can be
viewed at eye level close to the Big Bend
Hot Springs, along the Rio Grande River.
These pictographs probably belong to an
extinct people, forebears to the Apache and
Chihuahua Indians. The three pronged
claws depict bears that were killed in a
hunt.
The Santa Elena Gorge, where the Rio
Grande cuts a straight path through rugged
mountains, is absolutely incredible. The
water level was quite low when I visited the
Gorge; the facing rock is actually in Mexico!
A sun set view of Mexcian Mesas. The
scraggly hill in the front is Mexico; the blue
roofed building once held a store for early
19th century visitors to the Hot Springs
(before Big Bend became a National Park, a
small resort preserved and promoted the
Springs). Before the September 11th
attacks, Big Bend visitors could swim and
hike to Mexico without a problem; today,
the border is closed, and anyone caught on
Mexican soil who is not a Mexican citizen
can be thrown in jail and fined. Many of the
Hot Springs visitors dared to swim the Rio
Grande, anyway...
Here's a good look at the rugged
wilderness of Big Bend. My sister says this
landscape is definitely an acquired taste;
without much water and with temperatures
rising into the upper 90s even in the Spring,
she does have a point...
When you visit Big Bend, you *have* to visit
Fort Davis, one of the best Western frontier
military posts around. Established as a
guardian for American pioneers before the
Civil War, Fort Davis was abandoned during
the Rebel Conflict and was reopened once
settlement resumed. It was here that the
Buffalo Soldiers - freed African American
soldiers looking for adventure and
challenge - guarded the frontier and fought
the Apaches.
This marker is a good example of bad
history. It reads:

Ruins of
The Ranch Home of Manuel Musquiz,
A pioneer who settled here
In 1854
Abandoned due to Indian Raids
The deserted buildings served as
A ranger station intermittently
1880-1882
While the country was being
Cleared of Bandits and Indians

Erected by the State of Texas
1936

Two things stand out:
1. The audacity to equate the Apaches, who
were fighting for their homes and hunting
grounds, to bandits, and
2. The innocently termed 'ranger station'
hides the atrocities the Texas Rangers
committed against the Indians as well as
Mexican settlers.
Thelma and Louise road!
Big Bend Rocks -
Literally!