2020 Winter Camping Trip Day31

 2020 Winter Camping Trip Day31, 2020/12/26

Day2 in the Big Bend National Park. We had 3 hikes!

First one was Marufo Vega Loop. 14.4 miles with 2726 feet elevation change. We worried a bit about parking at the trailhead, because there was a sign saying breaking in would occur. The trailhead is not far from Mexican border and actually it is accessible from Mexican side. The river between US/Mexico is shallow and I heard that Mexicans cross the river by riding horses and steal stuff from cars. Due to that, we hid everything in the car that was visible from outside.  

The hike was absolutely solitude. We only saw 2 people at the end of hike. So from morning to evening nobody visible! I loved the solitude. 

The first couples of miles was in the wash and the vast desert area. Interestingly, we saw wild horses. The morning light and horses are pretty view in the desert (left picture). The wild horses: I didn't know that wild horses exist. Considering the location, however, it makes sense. Horses in Mexican villages escaped from their farm and crossed the river and stayed in the U.S. They are immigrants, or 2nd generation of immigrants. Somehow they wanted freedom. 

Rio Grande

Going further and further, the view got more and more dramatic. The trail goes down to the canyon and reached the Rio Grande, which is US-Mexico border. The canyon is very deep and huge rocks there were quite impressive. Then we reached the ridge. Below the ridge is the Rio Grande. The view between the river was amazing. Massive rocky mountains are in the both side of the river. The river was clear beautiful blue. It was extremely quiet and peaceful. I felt like I was in the middle of the different planet, since it was not the imaginable scene, even though I was still during the domestic trip. The only animal I saw was a couple of horses in the distance along the river. We sat on the ridge and had a lunch. This is one of the best views in my memory. For sure this will reside in my heart forever. 

donkey

2nd hike is a mini hike of 1.4 mile. This hike, Boquillas Canyon trail, also goes to Rio Grande, but it is far from the one we went in the hike I mentioned above.  Boquillas canyon is very close to Boquillas village in Mexico. Indeed we saw Mexicans from village kids were playing along the river. Adults were also there, too. Interestingly, along the river of the US side, they put souvenirs for Americans. There is a container to put cash (US dollars) there. In the river they had a kayak. Obviously they cross river and trying to sell stuff. It is illegal, and I am sure park rangers know it, but it seems that US park service or border control not really arrest them. I heard that US border control cooperate with Boquillas people so that border control can arrest very serious people like drug traders. In return US officers unofficially approve those Boquillas peoples' illegal "non-serious" crimes. Usually before COVID, there is an official boat tour from Big Bend National Park to go to their village several times a week. If Americans go there officially with passport, buying their souvenir goods in Mexico is totally legal. It was interesting to see such kinds of stuff. 

 

 

Another interesting thing we was was a horse and donkey along the river. Maybe they are belongings of those Mexicans. The donkey is following the horse. Then the horse went into the river, probably because the horse wanted to cool down (it was a warm day). Since the donkey was much smaller than the horse, the donkey couldn't go into the river. The donkey looked frustrated. He said, "Mmmmmmm" several times. His breathing got bigger. He seemed angry that the horse left him. After a while the horse came back to the shore and the donkey looked happy. Cute and funny!!

horse in the river and the donkey is staring at that

Finally we walked a mini nature trail near the campground and finished a day! I believe that not many people staying there, "hike, hike, hike" like us.

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day30-Big Bend National Park

 2020 Winter Camping Trip Day30, 2020/12/25

First day in the Big Bend National Park, we had a big day hike. 18 miles with 3600 feet elevation change. First we planned to hike up to Emory Peak, which was 10 miles, but we ended up hiking more. 

Emory Peak

I loved hiking in the Big Bend. Now it is a very different view from Arizona. The mountains in Texas are more brown and rocky at the top. The shape at the top are more rectangular and straight up to the sky.  Trails are built in the area with great view. Sometimes it is on the ridge looking down mountains below and in the distance, sometimes in the valley looking up in the mountains. 18 miles were long, but almost non-stopping view was had! 

Rim Trail

In Big Bend, there are a number of backcounty campsites. Especially East Rim campsites, we found them with great view. In 2020 the availability is limited, since at least half of them were closed due to COVID. For sure some time we need to go back for backpacking. Another cool thing was I was able to see Mexico. In the right picture, for example, the mountain range in the distance is in Mexico. I knew that US and Mexico are next each other, but seeing it was kind of exciting. It looked like that a lot of mountains in Mexico as well.

Evening Light

 

In the evening the orange sunlight reflected on the mountains: it was really beautiful! This day we went to a different campground: Rio Grande Village campground. Rio Grande means river Grande in Mexican and actually the river is the border between US and Mexico. The campground capacity was limited due to COVID. It looked like more than half was closed due to COVID. It was good. The campground was huge, probably 100 campsites, but 50 were open and all opened ones were occupied. It seemed that everyone was on vacation on Christmas. The majority of people had RV, and us tent campers were minority. 

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day28/29-Arizona to Texas

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day28/29, 2020/12/23-24

This day we traced back to the trailhead. It was easier, because water was gone, which was the heaviest part of the stuff, and it was downhill. We pleasantly again enjoyed a lot of Saguaro. Every tree is different, so it was not boring at all to see thousands of them. 

After completion of the hike, we saw a coyote crossing a road leaving Saguaro National park and going to the Tucson city direction. We saw and heard many coyotes during this trip. They are cute and their voices are interesting. 

Then we left the park and went to again Salsa Verde, a Mexican restaurant. Why not?!

Beautiful morning light

At night we camped at Cochise Stronghold Campground. There was a little Nature trail and historic trail with sign and panels. It was interesting. Cochise was a leader of this region. As you can see in the picture, Dragoon Mountains, rugged rocky terrain helped them to hide and attach their enemies. Actually the terrain is really beautiful. I need to go back there to explore more the area. 

Next day we drove to Big Bend National Park. 

On the way we stopped by a Mexican restaurant for take out. It is in Texas, why not having Mexican food? We did it in the El Paso. 

Big Bend is most south of Texas (US-Mexico border) and Texas is a big state: so the drive was a whole day. There we went through the border control checkpoint. Because it is near US-Mexico border, there are sporadic border control stations. There each car must stop. Then an officer asks a driver if all the passengers in the car are American citizens. In our case, Mr.N says he is American citizen, and he says that I am a green card holder. Then the officer asks me to show my green card. I handed it over to the officer. Usually the officer looks for a second and gives back to me and tell us good to go. I knew that there were border control stations so I brought my green card. It is interesting that American citizens don't need to show anything! What if a person lies?

We arrived at Chisos Basin Campground, which is inside the Big Bend National Park around 8 p.m. and pitched a tent and went to sleep.