Flip-Flopping our Big Bend Plans, a Slot Canyon, Hoodoos, and a Desert Valentine

We spent Wednesday and Thursday (Feb 8th & 9th) at a private RV park in Marathon, TX. Not much there, so we drove the 60 miles roundtrip into Alpine to find a laundromat and grocery store. Alpine was a fun little town and we spent the day checking it out. No RV repair place though. Rog came up with a workaround for the hot water heater that we hoped would serve until we can find a proper repair place.

Greetings from Alpine Texas! Part of a mural in town.

Texas Cow Dog. Lol. (Rian - I think he looks like Floyd!)

Our plan was to spend 10 days in Big Bend National Park and then move to the adjoining state park for seven days. We made reservations for the state park starting 2/20 and headed into the national park on Friday 2/10 with our fingers crossed. Both the national and state parks are huge with park headquarters and campsites spread over a couple hundred miles. This is where not having reservations can make things a bit tricky. I just have to remember to go with the flow. Lol.

We drove about 70 miles to the Big Bend National Park headquarters and pulled in around 11:00am.  We were hoping to get a “back country permit” which allows us to camp up to 14 days in a dispersed camping spot in the national park. The permits are site specific and you can only get them in-person. There are less than a dozen sites that can accommodate an RV and we were shut out. All full. Bummer. The closest campground was another hour or so into the park with no guarantee of a space there either. Hmmmmm… what to do. Our options were 1) turn around and find a spot in Marathon or Alpine and try the national park again midweek when there might be openings; 2) try our luck at one of the national park campgrounds which have been running full; or 3) flip flop our plans and see if we could get into Big Bend Ranch State Park.

We called the state park and they had openings. Yeah! So we drove another 40+ miles to the state park visitors center. Rog had already done some research on the dispersed camping sites in the state park and we wanted site #1 in the Upper Madera Canyon. This area only has 4 sites and it wasn’t clear if we could fit into any of the others. However, the state park reserves an area, not a specific site, so we couldn’t tell if the one we wanted was open. We booked 10 days in one of their new RV specific sites at La Cuesta that had just opened up, with the promise that we could snag our preferred site if it was open and come back to change the reservation. The new RV sites were side-by-side in a large gravel parking lot. Yuck. Not the experience we were hoping for. We unhitched the CRV and went to check on Upper Madera. Score!!! We put out some folding chairs and a “Site #1 is Occupied” sign and quickly went back to move the rig. Yeah, the jello plans are working out. : )

Settled in at site #1 in Upper Madera Canyon.

Our Upper Madera Canyon site is awesome, with sweeping views of the mesas, the Rio Grande, and herds of cattle grazing across the river in Mexico. Love it! After getting the RV set up, we made the trek back to the visitor’s center to sort out our reservation. Of course, nothing goes smoothly. At first the same staff person who assured us we could move to Upper Madera told us it wasn’t available. What??!! In the end, it was our length of stay that presented a problem so we shortened our reservation to seven days. Our existing reservation starts Monday, 2/20, but we’ll need to find a new home over the weekend. There is a big mountain bike festival in the park that weekend and all the Upper Madera sites were booked.

Home on the range. lol.

View from our patio. Can you see why we wanted to be here?!

Sunrise is beautiful...

... painting the mesa at first light.

In the meantime, we have a week in a great state park with lots to do!  Sunny weather is forecast through the weekend with temps in the 80’s and 90’s. Sunday will be windy with gusts over 40mph, which will bring cooler weather and possibly rain on Monday. Of course Rog’s workaround for the hot water heater stopped working as soon as we left civilization. Lol. So we’re heating water on the stove and roughing it. I’m sure all you tent campers are crying tears of sympathy for us. Lol.

The state park, as well as Big Bend National Park, are designated dark sky areas. Without the light pollution from larger population centers, the night skies are amazing. We were sitting outside waiting for it to get fully dark when Rog tells me to come check out the moonrise. The moon was still below the horizon, but it was so bright it was creating its own sky glow.  When it rose, it illuminated the entire canyon, you could almost read by it! Lol. Not exactly “dark skies”, but it sure was pretty. : ) 

Moonrise.

Madera Canyon illuminated by the moon and stars. 

We have a whole list of potential hikes and mountain biking trails to check out. We’ve done a couple of short hikes and driven the scenic route along the Rio Grande. Our first stop was Closed Canyon, my first hike into a slot canyon. It was so cool! No really, I mean it was at least 20 degrees cooler in there! Lol.  The high walls keep the narrow canyon in deep shade – a great choice for a 90° day!

Ruins of old stone buildings along the road. 

Hot enough for you?? Hard to believe it's February.
The temps did make the slot canyon hike that much more enjoyable. Lol.

Rog heading into Closed Canyon.

The "slot" in slot canyon. :)

Scrambling over boulders.

End of the line for us.

Our second short hike was around the Hoodoos and Balanced Rock overlook. We played around the rock formations and checked out the Rio Grande. We’re hoping to kayak a section if it works out. Loved the pink cactus – a desert Valentine for you! Lol.

Hoodoos above the Rio Grande.

My sentiments exactly.

Balanced rock.

Bunny ears!

A desert Valentine for you!

Rog is excited about the mountain biking trails here in the state park. On Sunday he did the 20-mile Lajitas Loop. He had a great time and ended up riding with the host from the national park campground. The camp host said he’s volunteered there for three years and he’s never seen it so full. He said there used to be 20 or more sites open midweek and now they are full nearly every day. His advice was to get there at 8am and try to snag a spot when someone leaves. We’ll see. Rog also plans to bike a section of the Sauceda Loop – which is 60-miles long and one of the International Mountain Bike Assoc. “epic” rides. He wasn’t able to participate in the mountain bike festival’s supported rides – they had filled their 500 slots and closed registration just a few days before we got here. But he can check out the vendors and will ride the trails before/after the weekend.

Heading into the desert on the Lajitas Loop.

Swallows nests on the cliff face.

A whole lot of nowhere. :)

Abandoned taco truck. Apparently business was slow out here. Lol. 

We were correct that there is no cell service in the state park. The visitor center has some sluggish wifi, but it doesn’t always work. When Rog does another bike ride I’m going to tagalong and try to get some blog posts uploaded at the visitor’s center. If you’re reading this, you’ll know I was successful! Lol.