We enjoyed the campground this morning. There was a great little walk through a beaver pond and up to a panoramic lookout. We are not used to seeing cardinals so they were pretty neat. There are also roadrunners out everywhere too which were not bored of seeing yet.
More pokey things. Here’s the original stick Daisy brought Isabella to play with.
We went up to the visitor center 20 miles away so we could get some WiFi and call Julia for her birthday. Happy Birthday 🎈JJ
The girls went in and finished up there junior ranger badges. There was an awesome ranger there, Ranger Bob who went above and beyond sharing information with the kids going from talking about water, to climate change, to how and why humans are using artificial light to change the way we live, to the illusion of time. He was kind of awesome, what you want when you bring your kids into visitor centers. Thanks Ranger Bob, pretty sure you blew the kids’ mind. All species need food, water, shelter, and space. If something changes there are 3 options…move, adapt, or die. He was also adamant about some of the national parks making mistakes, like Zion, about using shuttles in their parks. The national park oath is about providing conservation of space and not about fulfilling the the enjoyment of the public. I have to say, even though WE had a good time, the crowds there hugely affected our expedience.
Big Bend National Park is in West Texas and borders Mexico. The Rio Grande River runs along the southern border of the park and also serves as a border between the U.S. and Mexico. For more than 100 miles the Rio Grande forms the boundary between the 2 countries and 118 miles of it are in the national park.
The answer is that he sand at almost every national park.
We went to Santa Elena Canyon to do the hike along the canyon. It was a long 1 1/4hr drive. And even though it was on paved road it had lots of rolling bumps that were not good for RV driving. On the plus side we drove by the Chisos Mountains and Vera has become quite the lunch maker.
The Santa Elena Canyon. 1500’ limestone walls. The Rio Grande serving as the border between Mexico and the USA. Heading upriver, the wall on the left is Mexico.
The canyon was beautiful and the hike is just a short little 3/4 mile up and into the canyon on your right. Edwin is doing better and walking around well, but no real walks quite yet. The girls and I were about to head up the trail when a couple arrived in a rented canoe. light 💡 Despite Edwin’s injury, he climbed up to the roof and got down the boat. Edwin still the man ❤️
Look at these 2 little kick butt girls… They took off before I got out of the bathroom.
Of course as soon as they got onto the rocky shore they didn’t slow down and the kayak fell off the wheels 😆
Wow, thank you thank you Edwin for even suggesting we should boat up the river. And getting it down for us. We haven’t utilized it very much but this was a perfect spot. Even though there were people around the canyon was quiet. The hike was short and even though the canyon is beautiful the 1+hour drove down wasn’t feeling quite worth it. But getting to paddle up the Rio Grande was pretty grand. The girls did all the paddling. We paddled about an hour up the river, 2 bends past the end of the trail where all the people were and then really did have the canyon to ourselves. Pretty epic. The water felt calm and like it was barely moving, but we got back down in about 30 minutes without much paddling…so I guess the river was moving. The river was shallow in areas with a sandy bottom and we had to make sure we’d cross upriver without getting stuck.
Vera’s climbed onto a rock island…but what country is she in?? 🇲🇽 or 🇺🇸
This was on our way back downriver with the sun starting to get low on our backs.
What a fun afternoon. So happy we came down here and did what we did. The drive was definitely worth it.
It was 6pm when we left the canyon to head back towards the Panther Junction Visitor Center (which is still 30+ miles from the park entrance). Timing worked out great because I was hoping it would work out to attend their Dark Sky Night at 7:30. We didn’t get a camping spot for another night tonight because we knew we’d be gone for the day and only leave the visitor center after dark. Plus, our next stop is San Antonio (7 hours away) so we’d rather get a bit of driving in at night instead of getting back to our campground late at night and not be able to enjoy it anyway.
Big Bend is a Dark Sky Park. Gold Tier Level. It’s hard to imagine life without electricity and lights. Especially for us living in an urban environment. I don’t think there’s ever a time there are no lights. I still remember moving up to Idaho and it took me awhile to get used to no street lights. We lived at the end of a dirt road so it was especially dark. I also remember moving back to the Bay Area and feeling the same way in reverse…why are there so many lights around? It was now too light.
We have been to quite a few dark sky parks, but it’s either been a full moon, too cold, or were not there on the day they have a ranger program about the night sky. There were places there were so many stars in the sky the Big Dipper did not stand out. Point being..,we were happy to start learning a bit about what we were seeing at night. There’s really too much to share, nor do I think I could synthesize t in a way to share it all. But here are a few things that did blow my mind.
Sadly, counting the children born today, only 1 out of 10 will actually see the Milky Way with their own eyes. (Something that humans have looked up to (literally) / taken for granted is getting erased from our children’s realities.
Something we kind of know, but it’s different to hear in this way…. If the sun is where it is and we map out our planets with one step equaling 36 million miles…
Mercury. 1 step. 36 million miles away
Venus. 2 steps. 67 million miles away.
Earth. 2.5 steps. 93 million miles away.
Mars. 4 steps. 141 million miles away.
Jupiter. 13.5 steps. 484 million miles away.
Saturn. 25 steps. 891 million miles away.
Uranus. 50 steps. 1.8 billion miles away.
Neptune. 78 steps. 2.8 billion miles away.
Pluto. 102 steps. 3.6 billion miles away.
Edge of our solar system. 250 steps (2 football fields). 10.5 billion miles away.
Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1space probe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles.
An astronomer and author Carl Sagan has this to write….
So let’s all be kind to each other. We are all affected by the choices and actions of others. But we cannot control others, we can only live our own.
Also launched in 1977, Voyager 2, was sent out to send data back from deep space as well as…if anyone finds it…directions to get back to a Earth and a golden record with sounds from Earth which include a baby crying, whales, Mozart, Bach, and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny Be Good”
Here’s the letter President Jimmy Carter sent with each Voyager space probe.
We ended the night outside looking at stars and although we’d have to attend something like this multiple times to start seeing the night sky, I’m glad it worked out to come tonight.
It also really gave us an appreciation for all these places in the middle of nowhere that we are going to.