January 24-28, 2014 Big Bend National Park

Friday was the first of 2 travel days in a row.  The distance from Silver City NM to Big Bend National Park in Texas was more than we need to do in a day, so we decided to stop in El Paso Texas for the night.

Our route from Silver City NM to Marathon TX

 Headed toward El Paso area

 We crossed the Rio Grande and it didn't have very much water

Rush hour traffic started about 3:30, I thought I was back in Seattle!!

We fueled up (Diesel for $3.59/gal, I’ll take it!) and hit a Walmart to shop and spend the night.  Because we only did 163 miles, we had plenty of time in the afternoon, so we went to see a movie and then out to dinner. Saturday was a longer travel day, 300 miles to Marathon TX.  When we stay at Walmart we try to get up and gone early, and this time it was still dark at 7 am when we rolled onto I-10. Around 8:00 we stopped for breakfast at a rest area.

 Breakfast with a view

 

My junior navigator 

You never know what you'll see along the way

Just east of Marfa is a rest area with information about the Marfa Mystery lights and local history. During WWII a Flight Training school opened up east of Marfa and graduated over 7,000 pilots between 1941 and the end of the war in 1945.  The rest/viewing area was developed by the local high school and dedicated in 2001.

 It's a nice rest area

 Lots of information

There were 6 or 8 of these info stations spread around the area

We stayed at the Marathon Motel and RV Park for 2 nights. We opened up the trailer after we got set up, so we could get the DRZ’s out and their new tank bags installed.  However we discovered a broken window in the trailer and Wayne had to deal with that mess first.

 I should have taken photos before we cleaned out the broken glass

Sunday arrived with plenty of sunshine and a forecast  of 70 and clear. We headed down the 40 miles of paved road to the entrance to the park.

Our original plan was to camp for 1 or 2 nights in the park, but a cold front was coming in and dropping the night time temps to the 20’s, so we decided to pass on that idea.  We only got to do one side of the park, so we chose the east portion.  At the first dirt road on the left, we headed out to the Old Ore Road.  This joins the paved down near the Rio Grande River.

 Along the Old Ore Road

 Recommended for 4 wheel drive, the road was actually in good shape

We stopped at the Visitors Center and ate our lunch, then went out to the Boquillas Canyon overlook.  We could actually see the river; here is where the river goes into a very narrow canyon, which was a mile walk in all our riding gear, and it was hot so we decided against that.

 

 I think I've seen these cliffs in about a million western movies

 

We continued around our loop, our critter count for the day was 2 coyotes, one doe who had trouble jumping a fence and a very large rabbit.  As we got closer to the paved road back to camp, the wind began to pick up.  We had a 70 mile pavement ride with a huge head wind on the way back.

The weather was changing and more wind and cold were due.   Our discount for camping was only good for 2 nights, so we found another Passport America site in Fort Stockton, and headed there. 

I think that if the water was 5 feet deep, I would not be close enough to read this flood gage!!!

 

The wind wasn’t as strong in Fort Stockton, but boy was it cold.  So instead of a maintenance day on the bikes, Wayne did a couple of things, and I stayed inside in the warm coach working on the computer.  We have a date with the RV repair place to get the satellite dish replaced at 8 am in San Antonio on Thursday.  We’ll spend all day Wednesday traveling, but will spend Thursday afternoon and Friday morning checking out the local bike shops.  Then it is down to the Corpus Christi area to check that out!