Big Bend National Park

We booked a reservation outside of the park on Wednesday, staying two nights in Marathon, Texas at the Marathon Motel and RV park. We talked to a lot of people and the camping in the national park was pretty limited and they were very full so fitting our motorhome and trailer was going to be a challenge.

 After doing additional research at Marathon, we decided that we would spend more time in the area so we booked a site at the Lajitas Resort - Maverick Ranch RV park.  This resort had all the amenities   beyond just the RV park (stables, hotel, restaurants, shops, golf, enertainment along with many activities that could be booked through their activities center) and was located in between the National Park and the Big Bend State Park.  Unfortunately we only booked 3 nights, so we weren't going to have time for many activities but we both decided this is a place we would enjoy coming back to and spending a month.

Both of these parks are in Class 1 Dark Sky areas, so lights out around the motorhomes by 9:00.  The night sky is absolutely beautiful.

From Marthaton, we went into the National Park for the first time. Beautiful scenery, so different than all the other parks we've been in.  We actually ran into our neighbors we met in Marathon the first night and spent the afternoon with them in their new campsite within the park.  We enjoyed the various cactus plants throughout the park and captured a couple of them below.

On Friday we arrived in Lajitas Resort and had wonderful sunsets on our walk around the park with the "girls".  It was about 85.

On Saturday we took one of the top drives in the USA on the bike - FM170 from Lajitas to Presidio and back going over "Big Hill" which is a 15% grade.  The drive took us along the Rio Grande and we could see Mexico across the river for most of the trip.  The drive is called the Camino Del Rio and is the "Top 10 Scenic Highways in North America" according to National Geographic.

Rio Grande River - on the left side is Mexico.    

Top of the Big Hill, looking down canyon at Rio Grande

Flowers on the cliff we drove by.

On Sunday, we again drove into the National Park and enjoyed the views and the various flowers and cacti.  With our two trips into the park, we saw a little wildlife; deer, roadrunners, jack rabbits, coyote, kangaroo rats, skunks, desert lizards and lots of birds.

Yucca plants in bloom.

We also enjoyed all the wildflowers that were blooming.

Sotol Plants

When we arrived on Friday, the temperature through Sunday afternoon was in the mid to high 80's, cooling to 58 as a low.  On Sunday night a storm came in, and on Monday it was a high of 50, and a low of 41, but wind chill was about 30 in the morning.  Monday night is suppose to get colder and it was snowing towards Van Horn, our next stop.  So instead of leaving on Monday to Van Horn, we changed reservations and will travel on Tuesday.