Did you know there are mountains in Texas? Neither did I. But Bryce knew it, and all he could talk about doing for Spring break (and his birthday) was going to Big Bend National Park. So we decided that as long as we're living in Texas, we better make the most of it, and see what beauties exist. But of course we didn't decide this until 4pm the night before we'd have to leave in order to make the 10 hours (each way) of driving worth our while! So we scrambled. Our camping gear was a little out of date for this growing family, so we had to purchase a larger tent, and some miscellaneous other gear, but we pulled it all together (this, by the way, is a great way to see if your emergency kits are up to par...ours were not) and were on the road before 7am the next morning. And we had a fabulous time! Big Bend is an oasis of beauty in our forlorn Texas landscape, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. As you can see in the pictures, our campsite was in the middle of the desert, they call this, "primitive camping" I call it, "where's the toilet!!??" Everywhere...and anywhere is the answer, so I enjoyed a couple of days urinating with the rattlesnakes and scorpions (fortunately we did NOT actually encounter any of these!). Baby O was thoroughly intrigued by cactuses, and determined that desert rocks and sand are some sort of delicious treat, so needless to say she never left our side. Snackie on the other hand could hardly be contained, he is truly an adventure man, rarely did he go anywhere without his backpack on....always begging Bryce to hike this hill or that one.
Our first day in the park we visited the hot springs, and splashed in the Rio Grande. Bryce took a little swim across to the Mexican side...only to find out later that this is strictly forbidden so technically he is now here illegally! The next day we hiked around the more mountainous side and saw some beautiful views. There was one hike we really would have liked to have gone on, but the sign at the start read "Mountain lion warning" and gave instructions to hike in large groups, try to appear big and scary, and keep children close. It doesn't take much more convincing than that to send us in another direction! So we headed out to Santa Elena Canyon, and hiked some switch backs (yikes....I'm slightly paranoid of ledges...especially with children!) into a beautiful sandy shaded area of the canyon with large boulders to climb and rest on. We unfortunately witnessed a teenage boy jump about 20 feet and land with a broken leg...and more unfortunately witnessed the inefficient rescue operation where several Rangers hiked all the way into the canyon carrying large heavy equipment to wheel the boy out on. I asked one of the men why they didn't boat up the river, and he responded "this is what we get paid to do." What ever happened to working smarter, not harder?
We saw our share of wildlife as well. The first night a mouse was scampering around our campsite, Bryce tossed a rock in it's direction, and it leapt 3feet in the air! Ever seen that before? Neither had we. We found out later they are appropriately named "Kangaroo Rats." From the safety of our car we saw a few Havalinas (wild pigs) a Coyote, some Deer, and on the last day we made friends with a couple of lizards (and sadly brought one home with us wrapped up with our tent...it now rests in peace on the door jam above our back porch).
We had a wonderful time camping as a family. Bryce took great care of us, making fire, food, shelter, and fun. He made sure we stayed warm enough at night, and cool enough in the day. He even was the one to get up and cuddle with Baby O when she would awaken, and drag Snackie back into his sleeping bag when he'd slither across the tent floor at night. We're looking forward to many more camping trips as a family, we probably won't be driving another 10hours to Big Bend again any time soon, but if you're up for it....do it - in our opinion, it's well worth it!
