On Friday morning, we said goodbye to El Cosmico and set out for the main attraction: Big Bend National Park.
The plan was to secure one of the “first-come, first-served” primitive camping spots inside the park itself. But over the course of our two and a half hour drive from Marfa (plus a 25+ minute wait for espresso and avocado toast at Do Your Thing, oops) every campsite was spoken for—even the backcountry campsites, which honestly we were in no way prepared to tackle.
Peak millenial moment of the trip: waiting 25 minutes to eat $9 avocado toast from Do Your Thing Coffee in Marfa.
Still, not all hope was lost—although we did consider sleeping in the car. The park rangers referred us to Stillwell Ranch, a privately owned property about 25 miles outside of the park. They said it was “pretty much guaranteed” to have room, so we put that info in our backpocket and set off for our first hike of the trip (finally!).
Our friend Kristen (who also loaned us her boyfriend’s camping gear, thanks Aric!!!) recommended Boquillas Canyon, so that was first on our list. The trail is a 1.4-mile roundtrip mini hike along the Rio Grande. There’s a beach, there’s canyons, there’s Mexico right across the river and there’s even sand dunes to slide back down from the peak!
Views of Mexico from our perch in Boquillas Canyon.
Me & Gordon at Boquillas Canyon—our first hike of the trip!
#Beto2020
I got that hat (which reads “Bandera, Texas—Cowboy Capital of the World”) after completing the 25K Bandera Trail Run in 2017, by far the toughest race of my entire life.
After our Boquillas Canyon adventure, we drove the 50-some miles out of the park to get a campsite at Stillwell Ranch. We were lucky enough to set up the tent pretty quickly, because once it gets dark—it gets dark.
You can’t see anything until an hour or so later, or until your eyes adjust, and then the moon illuminates everything like a giant spotlight. Thank god, because there’s a lot of cacti to avoid if you need to pee.
For dinner, I had buffalo-flavored pretzel chips, one chocolate chip cookie, 4.5 Lone Stars and one Big Bend Brewing Co. “National Park” beer, which honestly might be kind of skunked from sitting in the car all day. Needless to say… we are looking forward to eating real food tomorrow!
We played cards and read David Sedaris stories until we were about to fall asleep when our neighbors in the lot across the road started blasting EDM, which is not really the vibe I was going for! The “parents” of the group (I am assuming) shut it down not too long after, which I—a grandma—appreciated.
Me, writing in my journal after a much-needed shower.
The shower the next morning was freezing and two of my fingers went numb but at least I managed to wash my hair. Feeling grateful to be able to shower at all!