The Big Bend of Texas

Outside Marfa, TX
The coolest permanent art exhibit anywhere. In the middle of the Chihuahuan desert: a Prada store.


Marfa, TX
A very cool little town in the middle of, seriously, nowhere. Full of artists and art coops, organic/local/sustainable food (who'd a'-thunk it?), and really neat architecture.



Stillwell Ranch and RV Park
(just outside northern entrance to Big Bend NP)

Can you say, funky? Sure you can, sure.



We stayed on "The Strip," a wide-open area with horse corrals, water and electric hookups, and not much else but space. (The other area was cheek-to-jowl Class As because it offered a sewer connection and cost $2.50/night more.) We preferred the space, and boy did we have some.





Not exactly the perfect place to ride out a windstorm (40mph), but it was better than driving!

Sunrise over Stillwell Ranch Campground--our patriotic neighbor's flag is even appropriately lit at night.



Big Bend National Park
Here is Lisa with a geocache "travel bug" that a new friend asked us to take to any national parks on our route. We plan to take it to Hot Springs NP and bury it there for someone else to find. (Big Bend seemed just too remote.)


The Window, up in Chisos Basin


The yucca plants were in full bloom


This rock formation is called "Mule Ears" but it is incorrectly named. That is our German shepherd's ears (with one bitten off a bit) and his long snout snoozing on the back of the dinette seat as we tool down the road.



One of my many ocotillo plant studies: in context and up close. These things are so weird in general but even stranger when blooming.




Things grow wherever they can in the desert


These folks were living right back in the early 20th century: this was once a 1200 square foot house, on a hill overlooking what used to be fertile farm land, with a double-sided fireplace made of really cool petrified wood. Can't imagine what that'd cost to build today!




Going into Santa Elena Canyon on the Rio Grande


The scale of the canyon


View as you climb up the steep trail. That's Rocksie Candu in the lower left quadrant. And those specks are people walking on the sand....


Lisa contemplating the muddy Rio Grande, from the U.S. side of the border, of course! Rest assured that the U.S. Border Patrol was out in force along the entire area. We were good and safe, although it does feel a bit odd to be asked one's citizenship inside of one's own country.


And a final shot: the long and winding road. Man, everything IS bigger in Texas.