Friday, January 29, 2010

Big Bend National Park, Texas

January 27, 2010

Good morning from Big Bend. This is an amazing place. Yesterday we were at 80 feet above sea leavel hiking in the Santa Elena Canyon and 1.5 hours later we're at our campground at 5,000 feet. If you're not prepared, Big Bend is a pretty unforgiving place. Roads where another vehicle may not pass by for days. Seasonal water sources, which means no water for most of the year. Lots of homestead ruins from ranchers that just couldn't make it down here.


We followed the Rio Grande all the way from Presidio, Tx on FM170. Along the way one of the things we saw was the Contrabando movie set. Several low budget westerns were made here such "The Gambler V" with Kenny Rogers.


Also, did you know that the Rio Grande is basically dry from El Paso to Presidio? The water we saw actually came from Mexico via the Conchos river. Apparently farming and metropolitan water usage pretty much depletes the Rio Grande by the time it reaches Texas.

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