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We were supposed to be in picturesque Carlsbad, New Mexico this weekend. Instead, we are staged at an RV park on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas, waiting for our Monday appointment at an RV dealer where we hope to have our finicky water heater repaired. Then, hopefully the same day (Tuesday at the latest), we need to go to an auto glass shop to get replacement glass installed for the inside pane of the driver’s window that mysteriously shattered last week.

Urban RV parks are not our usual thing. This park is older and was designed for skinnier RVs. You know, back when not every RV had multiple slide-outs. Spaces are very close together. Mike actually measured the distance between utility posts to satisfy our curiosity. It’s 21 feet from post to post. Our RV is 12.5 feet wide, with the slides out. In a site that’s 21 feet wide, we have an “extra” 8.5 feet. That’s barely enough room for a lawn chair, not that we’d want to sit outside in this less-than-favorable environment. And we’re pretty close to the interstate, too, so there’s traffic noise day and night. It’s a depressing place.

In the image shared above, you can see how densely populated the area is. You can also see Juarez, Mexico in the lower left third of the image.

We are hoping the water heater and glass repairs all happen tomorrow (Monday) so we don’t have to return to this spot in East El Paso. It’s definitely not a happy, relaxing place. The sooner we can get out of here, the better.

I’m not complaining, really. It’s all part of the adventure. Besides, with nothing else to do, I can go through more of my pics from Big Bend National Park (BBNP) to share here.

If you look at a map of BBNP, you’ll see there are several distinct areas. Our campground was near the western side of the park in Study Butte/Terlingua. On our fourth trip into the park, we drove to the eastern side to see Rio Grande Village.

 

 

It would have been nice to hike through the canyon, but we had Belle with us. At BBNP, pets are not allowed on trails, off roads, or on the river. Basically, your pet can only go where your car can go. Having Belle along limited what we could do in the park, but she hates being left alone in the RV. We both agreed we would rather miss out on a few activities than severely stress Belle out at this advanced age in her life (she will be 15 in June).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best thing about staying close to the national park over an extended period of time was that we didn’t feel forced to cram a bunch of stuff into every day. Some days, we didn’t even leave the campsite.

Another good thing about staying close to the park is being able to visit at different times of day. Believe it or not, things look different throughout the day due to the ever-changing angle of sunlight throughout the day.

BBNP is truly an amazing place. In my next post, I’ll tell you all about one of the hikes I took while we were there.

We’ve been camped in Terlingua, Texas, a few miles from one of the entrances to Big Bend National Park (BBNP), since February 1. Knowing we were going to be here until February 25, we have not been exhausting ourselves, cramming myriad activities into each and every day. Some days we leave the campground and explore. Other days we just “do retirement things”, as Hubby Mike says. Retirement things include reading, napping, watching movies/other shows, stitching, blogging, making future campground reservations, etc. Essentially, whatever the heck we want to do or not do as the case may be.

This is my third installment about BBNP here on the blog, but that doesn’t mean we’ve only been into the park three times. On this particular day visiting BBNP, we drove into the Castolon area on the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, which ends at the Santa Elena Canyon. I didn’t think anything could top the views we’d seen on previous visits in and around the Chisos Basin. I was wrong.

The drive through the Castolon area to Santa Elena Canyon was spectacular.

The next five images are all of the same two mountains. I chose to share them here to demonstrate just how quickly and dramatically the views of the same two peaks can change as one proceeds along the road.

I have so many good photos to share (70!), that I had to post them to a Google Photos album. If you care to see the other pics, you have to click this link to view the album in Google Photos.

As nice as these images are, I still say they don’t do the place justice. We are so blessed to be able to spend time here seeing this amazing scenery first-hand. Hopefully, those of you who may not be able to travel to such distant places are enjoying these pics I have been sharing. For those of you who are able to travel and enjoy visiting national parks, BBNP and the nearby Big Bend Ranch State Park should definitely be added to your bucket list.

We’ve really been enjoying our time here in Terlingua, Texas. I’m a bit behind on posting because we have been keeping busy. I have also spent a bit of extra time staring at my various electronics working on future reservations, which is a very good thing. We are now booked (mostly) through mid-June. Anyway… back to the fun stuff.

As I may have noted in previous posts, our campground is only a few miles from one of the entrances to Big Bend National Park. We’re only about 20-30-minutes from a state park, too. Since we’d gone into the national park a couple of times already, on February 6 I chose Big Bend Ranch State Park as a nice place to spend my birthday.

I didn’t have a lot of expectations for the place. By that I mean I hadn’t read much about the state park, so I didn’t know what to expect in terms of scenery, viewpoints, road conditions, etc. We were both pleasantly surprised. The park is gorgeous. And it feels just as big as the national park.

The state park is so lovely, in fact, that I have an overabundance of pictures I’d like to share (almost 80!) and had to upload them to Google Photos to make sharing possible.

I did pick a short list of pics to share here, for folks who don’t like clicking elsewhere to view post-related images.

 

According to the state park’s website, “The scenic drive along the River Road (Texas FM 170), following the meanders of the Rio Grande, is among the most spectacular in the nation.” I have to agree. The scenery was spectacular. And the weather was perfect during our visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Belle hadn’t been feeling herself for a week or so. I think all of the recent changes (lots of new campsites in a short span of time) overwhelmed her. She’d been limping on her right front leg, too. That and the fact that we are in a very different environment than what she’s used to — we are near the northern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert — and there’s not a blade of green grass to be found. For a few days, she even refused to potty outside.

She’s feeling better now. A trip to the “local” vet (a 90-minute drive each way!) and some anti-inflammatory medication for the leg seems to have helped. And she’s gotten more used to the desert. We are both very happy she seems to have turned the corner and is more herself again. She’s going to be 15 in June, so we kind of take things day by day with her, making sure she’s still happy and living her best life, given her advanced years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If these mountain images bore you, you probably won’t care to see the extra photos that go along with this post. If you like what you see here and want to see more, click this link to see the Google Photos album I prepared.

 

Being fortunate enough to experience Big Bend National Park (BBNP) is a treat in and of itself. That enjoyment was elevated quite a bit on Friday when, upon driving into the Chisos Mountains within BBNP, we realized hoar frost had coated some of the area. It was really, REALLY cool (pun intended!).

Neither of us had ever experienced frost like this. I’m not entirely sure it’s hoar frost, it could be rime ice. One clue is that the frost only formed on one side of the vegetation (see pic below). For sake of simplicity, I’ll just call it hoar frost from here on out.

 

According to the volunteer at the visitor center, frost like this is pretty rare. It only happens once, maybe twice a year. And the atmospheric conditions have to be just right for it to occur.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took lots of pictures, trying hard to capture the beauty of the scenery. I’m not convinced pictures can do it justice.

 

 

 

In case any of you have ever wondered, I do realize how blessed we are to be able to have this experience. I am thankful every day that we get to wake up and enjoy full-time RV life. It isn’t all sunshine and roses, no matter how wonderful and prefect my pictures make it look, but it is pretty fun.

We left Fredericksburg, Texas on February 1 and headed west and slightly south to Terlingua, Texas, which is where we are staying while we visit Big Bend National Park (BBNP).

Terlingua is only a few miles away from one of the park entrances. I added a red arrow to the map shared below (from Mapsofworld.com) to show you where BBNP is located. It’s pretty remote.

It took us about six hours to get here from Fredericksburg. We left on a Tuesday. On Thursday, just about all of Texas was under a winter weather warning for snow and ice. The Big Bend region was spared the precipitation, but it did get pretty cold. So cold, in fact, that the campground had to turn off their water to prevent the system from being damaged by freezing.

We just hung out around the campsite on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, we decided to take a drive into the national park.

 

The park looks pretty small on the map I shared above, right? Relative to the state of Texas, it is kinda small. But Texas is a huge state. It’s hard to imagine just how big this place is until you are here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the unique features of BBNP is that it has its own mountain range, the Chisos Mountains. As noted on Wikipedia, “The mountain system covers 40 square miles (104 square km) and is contained entirely within the boundaries of Big Bend National Park, making it the only mountain range in the United States fully contained within a national park.”

 

 

 

 

 

As we were headed back in the direction of camp, we decided to dip south into the Chisos Mountain Basin. Many of the following images were captured there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I actually captured quite a few more images as we drove up into the Chisos Basin. As it turns out, the atmospheric conditions yesterday were just right for a rare — once, maybe twice per year — hoar frost to settle on some of the vegetation. It was amazing to see.

My next post will feature pics showing the hoar frost we saw in the Chisos Mountains.

After our tour of the living history farm with Jerry and Lynne, we were all ready for some end-of-day libations, so we headed over to what is essentially Lynne and Jerry’s “local” bar, the Albert Icehouse and Dancehall.

One of the things I like about travel in general is learning new things. When we were in San Antonio, I read about establishments that sounded like bars,  but were called icehouses. It sounded like a Texas version of a dive bar.

I didn’t really think much of it until Lynne and Jerry invited us to join them at the icehouse in Albert, Texas, which is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from their RV site at the state park.

If you’d like to learn more about icehouses in general, check out this article on the Texas Highways website. Basically, they are a kind of dive bar and are typical in this part of Texas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imagine how cool it would be to hang out in the yard on a pleasantly warm evening below that massive Live Oak tree that’s hung with strings of outdoor lights. That would definitely be relaxing.

We said goodbye to our friends, Lynne and Jerry, at the Albert Icehouse. We definitely enjoyed our visit with them and are hoping to cross paths again later this year.