54.6/21 The Little Known Big Bend State Park

Leaving Arizona and New Mexico behind , we crossed into the Kingdom of Texas at El Paso, Texas’ west-most outpost almost 900 miles via the I-10 from Beaumont on the eastern border. Considering the state is a little over 900 miles from Oklahoma in the north to Brownsville on the Mexican border, you have one big state. One doesn’t venture into Texas lightly; once you reach the interior, it takes a long time to get out. (It took us ten days.)
In Alaska there are no roads in much of the state, so in a few days, even at the 50 mph, required by the frost heaves and road conditions, you will have done all the paved roads in the state. Not so with Texas—you can drive at 70 mph for it seems like weeks and still find that you’re far from a border! (Caveat: these are my feelings, not necessarily statistically accurate.)

But back to El Paso: the city of a half million is dwarfed by it Mexican neighbor, Ciudad Juárez, across the river which claims some 1.2 million people, so the metro area comes in at about 2 million. We were happy thinking about all the mail we would pick up at the Post Office General Delivery. After several misses at the correct Post Office and the time of day approaching 5 pm, Nellie, our GPS Navigator, found us the right one…
”No mail for Pawek?! How can that be? It was sent “General Delivery”… (It’s hot; Jean’s waiting in the RV with the generator and A/C running full blast.) …I sat down with the Asst. Post Master and we talked about where our mail (including some important documents and TV program finales on DVDs) might have gone. I called our home postmistress in Mountain View, Diane, to find that she had in fact sent several parcels to “General Delivery”, El Paso. More consulting with post office officials—they assigned a special person to the case and I gave a forwarding address. We have since learned that the three parcels in question have been returned to California.
We went the nearest Flying J truck stop to spend the night and console ourselves that there was nothing more we could do about the mail situation.
In the meantime the weather was changing—from very hot, dry and sunny to very hot, wet, and stormy. On our way, after leaving the I-10 at Van Horn, Texas and heading south on US 90 (that would be “our road” for 800 miles, except for 50 miles while we were in the Big Bend Parks) the sky became really black and stormy and full of lightning flashes and all we could see ahead of us was rain, dark thunder clouds, and flashing lightning—in fact it was all around us.

Texas Storm on US 90

Clearing Storm on the US 90

But then as we went farther south, the sky began to clear. We campied near the town of Presidio at the edge of Big Bend Ranch State Park.

Loma Paloma Camp Ground

We woke up to a BSD (Bright Sunny Day).

While I performed the weekly chore of dumping our sewer and refilling the fresh water tank, Jean, having done the laundry the night before, immediately headed for the bush…

Wildflowers at Loma Paloma RV Park, Presidio, Texas

Although it was the end of June in the Chihuahuan desert near the Rio Grande at 2,700 feet, there were masses of familiar flowers at Loma Paloma RV Park. The white-purple Wild Radish turned out to be new to me, Nerisyrenia camporum; the Desert Marigold was Baileya pleniradiata and the clump of spiny leaves a Yucca.

Prickly Pear Cactus Growing with Creosote-bush

I was surprised to find an old friend from the Mohave Desert, “Creosote-bush”, Larrea tridentata still the dominant shrub at the west end of Big Bend State Park. It had been with us through AZ, to Organ Pipes National Monument, all across NM and will still be present east to the Pecos River, until Mesquite thickets take over around San Antonio TX.

Prickly Pear Flower with Fruit

Here, at Presidio, Creosote-bush was interspersed with the showy Prickly Pear Cactus, Opuntia phaecantha. Crimson fruits fringed the edges of the cactus pads, with an occasional late flower, brilliant yellow with crimson center.

Unicorn Flower

And what are those dark green round leaves low to the ground? There is the large yellow flower! Finally! my first live “unicorn horn”, Proboscidea altheaefolia. From book illustrations I know the “fruits” will be dry narrow curved pods ending in a hook, about 10 inches long. No sign of those now.

Stinging Cevallia

I approached the next plant with caution, thinking it a prickly Phacelia, and just getting over an allergic rash like Poison Oak which began in Page, AZ, almost 4 weeks ago from handling Phacelia crenulata. I recognized Stinging Cevallia, Cevallia sinuata from the illustration in “Chihuahuan Desert Wildflowers”. In spite of my caution in photographing it, a little brushed my forearm and produced a stinging, nettle-like rash—which fortunately lasted only a few minutes. Checking back, I found Stinging Cevallia is in the Loasaceae family which has many species with nettle-like barbed stinging hairs.

Camino del Rio

The main attraction for us in Big Bend State Park is the beautiful, but very windy and hilly, 50 mile drive along the Rio Grande, called Camino del Rio. The scenery is outstanding and the plants are profuse all along this road.

The Rio Grande Looking West

Climbing up one pass on a 16% grade (the sign said 15%, but my gauge registered more than 16%), we came to this breath-taking view of the Rio Grande canyon and Mexican mountains across the river. Going over the pass, there was nearly as impressive a view high above the river to the east.

The Rio Grande Looking East

Passing through the very small towns of Lajitas, Terlingua, and Study Butte (they share one gas station), we were at the western border of Big Bend National Park.

Western Edge of Big Bend National Park