The wife I headed down to Big Bend National Park for a 4 day/4night bikepacking trip over Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, we had to amend our itinerary as the Rio Grande had flooded badly in September (during the hurricane perhaps?) and had blown out a large section of the River Rd and the accompanying campsites. I made the best of it and created an impromptu route in the backcountry permit office. After getting our permits, we got ready for the first leg of 13 miles on pavement:
The one upside is that our new route would have us crossing back by the car after the second night so we didn't have to go berzerk on packing food. Strapped down and zipped up, we headed out...
Ran across a park inhabitant on the paved section:
Before long we had turned off the main pavement and were on dirt:
Another park inhabitant:
This part of the park, the northern section, is less dramatic than the south central section, but it still had plenty of nice views to take in...
And some short views...
Nearing camp, we captured a few more..
After maybe 35-40 total miles we made it to camp. The designated sites were very simple, but were nice and flat. I wouldn't have guessed it beforehand, but this place had a lot of bugs...namely gnats. They loved me. Anyway, we grabbed made some dinner and turned it for the night. I hadn't slept too much the 2 previous nights and was exhausted.
Up and rolling the next morning at a decent hour with the Rio Grande Village as our morning target for water and snacks.
After a stop at the Village, a 3 mile RT detour, we climbed back up the road to reach the River Road West. Katri rolling through the tunnel...
A view from the River Road...
The temps were pretty high for us mountain folk. Maybe low 80's. A quick stop for lunch:
To be honest, the post lunch/pre-camp section of the River Rd was pretty heinous. It was hot, the scenery was a bit blah and the road surface was slightly loose. Late afternoon views on the Black Gap Rd after turning away from the closed River Rd....
The views from this camp were very nice and the night was very very tranquil. Setting up the tent, I happened upon a scorpion. I donated him to higher calling instead of wondering if he would sneak into our shoes or something. After a filling dinner, we hit the sack...
The next morning I decided to take over pannier duty. Of course they were much lighter than day one, but what can I say.
We weren't 2 minutes away from camp when we crossed a pack of javelinas!!! I wasn't quick enough with the camera, so I hunted down this shot from the web (it says it was shot in Big Bend):
Pretty cool sighting. I wouldn't want to scrap with those little dudes. The ride on morning 3 was very pleasant. The temps had come down a little and the views were nice. A few of Katri:
Nearing our return to the car...
We reached the car at about 12:30pm. The road ahead to our 3rd campsite was a looong way off and almost all paved. Between the that, the howling headwinds and me coming down with a cold, we decided to call off the remaining part of the route. We opted instead to do some touristing in this part of the country...a seldom visited part for most of us. Katri, my Estonian wife, getting detained at the Border Patrol for not having her passport or green card:
Just doing their job. You never know what can come out of the hostile nation of Estonia.
The next day we explored Carlsbad Caverns National Park. This had always been on our list of things to check out and I'm glad we did. In short, it exceeded my expectations....largely due to its...well...largeness. It's a whole other world down there. Listening to the audio interpretive program...
On our final morning before we headed home we swung through White Sand National Monument for a look see:
Very enjoyable trip. You stay classy, San Diego.
