About That Big Bend, Texas (March 3 - 11)

Dear Family and Friends,

We left Del Rio early Saturday morning for the drive to Alpine, Texas. We were in Alpine for three nights while we toured Big Bend National Park, Ft. Davis and Alpine.

On Saturday afternoon we drove into Alpine, so named because the early settlers thought Texas needed some kind of Alp area. There are mountains in the area and lots of pine trees, thus the connection with the Swiss Alps. We stayed at the Lost Alaskan RV Park.

 Sul Ross State University is located in Alpine. On the campus sits the Big Bend Museum which houses an excellent education in the history of the area as well as insights into the park. You may remember Dan Blocker, who played Hoss on Bonanza. Dan played football for Sul Ross and the museum has a ten gallon hat and boots from the series.

Our home for three nights in Alpine, Texas

Roger is getting ready to tour the Big Bend Museum located on Sul Ross University's campus.

Sunday was our day to drive to Big Bend National Park. Alpine is about 100 miles away but because our Tour is 43 feet long, we have to stay in parks that can handle large rigs. In addition, we like to have 50 amp electricity. National and State parks are not usually able to handle our motor home.  The trip to Big Bend took us near Terlingua, Texas, the home of the famous chili cook off. We had to have the following sign.

Big Bend National Park has over 800,000 acres to explore. Big Bend houses the Rio Grande River, the Chisnos mountains and the Chihuahuan desert.  The roads end at the Rio Grande River with Mexico on the other side. Many of the park's vistas mix scenes belonging to both countries. Our focus today was on the most famous, Santa Elena Canyon. The following pictures show the towering walls of the canyon as Roger and I hiked into it.

Bear and I are posing at the entrance of the park.

Bluebonnets, the Texas State flower.

The start of the Santa Elena Canyon hike.

Roger is beginning our hike into Santa Elena canyon, by walking in the Rio Grande River bed.

Mexico on the left and the US on the right. The Rio Grande is in the center.

The cliff faces are very high.

Tuesday was our day to go North into the Davis Mountains, where we visited Ft. Davis. However, our first stop was at the Prude Ranch, where I had gone to camp after completing second grade. This was a two week camp where we learned a lot about riding horses. I learned how to barrel race at the age of 8.

 The entrance to the Prude Ranch. It is still a boys and girls camp, but has also become a dude ranch.

Wild turkeys roam the Prude Ranch property.

The U.S. Army built a fort at the mouth of a box canyon near Limpia Creek to protect travelers heading westward over the San Antonio - El Paso Road/ Overland Trail. The historic ruins are preserved by the National Park Service. Today it is regarded as the most outstanding example of a southwestern frontier military post. From 1845 to 1891, this fort played a significant role in the settlement and development of the western frontier. Buffalo Soldiers were stationed here beginning in 1866.

Ft. Davis was named for Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis while he held that office for the federal government. 

Roger and Bear getting ready for the tour.

Looking across the parade ground to the officer housing.

The enlisted soldier housing.

The Post Commander's Home
The interior has been beautifully restored.

Wednesday was a travel day to Las Cruces, New Mexico. We took the road to Ft. Davis, caught Texas 17 to Balmorhea (a truly beautiful drive) and caught I 10 to Las Cruces. Driving through El Paso is always a sporting event and we were thrilled when we were through it. We met our friends, Virginia and Ray, for dinner. The next morning, we toured Mesilla, an earlier settlement than Las Cruces and headed back to the RV to secure it because a huge wind with blinding dust arrived and stayed the rest of the afternoon. It was so bad that we pulled in all of our slides and had to stow the satellite receiver. We left that evening for dinner at Virginia and Ray's home and by the time we returned to the RV, the wind had calmed down.

Ray and Virginia were friends of ours from our days at RAF Bentwaters in England. We were guests in their beautiful home in Las Cruces, New Mexico. 

Early Thursday morning we left Las Cruces for the five hour trip to Tucson. We arrived at Davis Monthan Air Force Base. Avid blog readers know from posts in July and October, that this base is very important to us. We were thrilled to be back on the base though we are here for a short time. 

Thank you for checking in with us as we continue our adventures. We appreciate the opportunity to share them with you. I am taking a break from blogging for this coming week. I will post again in two weeks when we will begin our trip west and then north for the Spring and Summer. See you then!