Having experienced the cities of Texas, Austin being a highlight and one we would recommend to everyone, it was time to get back to the natural beauty of the US.  We were on our way to Big Bend National Park, however it is too far to reach in one day of comfortable driving and we had decided to stop en route at Seminole Canyon a Texas State Park, this turned out to be a great stopover.

Seminole Canyon is named after the black Seminole Indian trackers the US cavalry used on the border with Mexico rather than it being their homeland (don’t get me started on the treatment of the native indigenous population!).  It is a natural feature that runs into the Rio Grande river which forms the border between the US and Mexico, it is also the home of some native Indian rock art dating back over 1,000 years that is still viewable today on the tours the state park put on daily.

After Seminole we drove on to Big Bend National Park in west Texas along US Highway 90, a great road through rugged features alongside a railroad.  In Big Bend we stayed the first two nights in the Rio Grande RV Village, which was basically a car park with electricity, water and a sewage outlet where we were cheek by jowl with the neighbours.

The scenery is amazing at Big Bend, it has buttes (enormous single rock formations standing alone on a plain), mesas (even bigger rock formations that have a plateau on their top), canyons across the plains and a mountain range.  What it doesn’t have, apart from the Rio Grande, is much water so it is officially a desert and in March when we were there it is the driest month and also about 10-15 degrees above average temperature so we topped up our tans and ran the real danger of dehydration if you don’t drink enough water on any hike.  Needless to say we set off with two small bottles of water each on a four hour round trip that was up-hill for the first two of them in sapping heat with little shade.  This was along the Blue Creek Trail and while we thoroughly recommend it as it wove between different geologies as it climbed towards the Chisos mountains, but we would suggest taking more water.  We survived and on return to our campsite decided we would walk to the hot springs, setting out about half an hour before sunset and after about 45 minutes realising that climbing up onto a high plateau on a path strewn with lose rocks might not have been the best idea we’ve had so we backtracked and setup our telescope that we received as a wedding present to look at the amazing night sky.

The next day we needed to move campsite to a primitive one that has no water, electricity and only drop toilets (look them up) so we were off mains completely, however it is in a beautiful setting next to the Rio Grande and with a massive butte overlooking it.  We walked to the ‘border’ which on the US side had a very poorly maintained single line of barbed wire that had been pulled apart by other campers so they could swim in the river.  I would suggest that Donald is going to have a lot of trouble building his wall in the park and if he were to succeed it is going to severely disrupt the local ecosystem as coyotes, bears, javalinas (animals that look like pigs but are not closely related) and other ground animals don’t recognise national borders and use the river for water and cross to and fro between the US and Mexico.

After bagsing our campsite, it’s on a first come first served basis, we set off to do the Mule Ears trail to one of the few springs in the region, again a beautiful walk through varying geology with lizards and frogs with some attractive birds.  After this we went to what is one of the highlights of the park, the St Elena Canyon, absolutely stunningly beautiful where the Rio Grande runs between two enormous cliffs that people canoe and kayak down (again this might be disrupted somewhat by a wall as the river forms the border and most of the water traffic meanders across the border constantly).  One cliff is in Mexico, one in the US but both staggering to behold there is a short walk along the US and in moments of quiet (i.e. when the other tourists are out of sight and hearing) it is one of the most tranquil and inspiring places I’ve ever been.

The next morning, Saturday, we arose early and set off on the 300 mile drive to El Paso, we drove along the Texas state highway 118, which has incredible scenery too but which had the longest road works I’ve ever seen at about 40 miles, within which their popped up a Prada shoe store (I am not making this up, UPDATE: a big thank you to Natalie who has explained that this is a famous artwork, http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/27039/1/prada-marfa-ten-years-on) in the middle of nowhere that I suspect was a marketing exercise.

Got to El Paso, not much of a city, apart from its across the border from Cuidad Juarez, one of the most violent cities on the planet where a taxi driver said there wasn’t any issue with smuggling or illegals.  I think this might be an attitude that some US politicians disagree with, in any case we’re off skiing of which more next week!

M