Big Bend National Park is located in western Texas, right on the Mexican border.  Getting there was a very long drive through a whole lot of nothing, but when I got to my camp, just outside the park gates, I found… a whole lot of nothing.  Well, there were cacti, and small lizards, and some rocks and things.  And mountains in the distance.

When I got up the next morning I discovered that my Afghanistan deployment was good training for camping in Texas.  No problem, I can do two minutes in a pinch!

I was up fairly early, and seemed to be one of the first people in the park in the morning.  After driving down the road a way, the first thing I saw was two coyotes playing in the brush by the side of the road.  (The second is hard to see, but is behind the bush on the right.)

The mountains that I had seen in the distance the night before got closer and closer, and were beautifully jagged and harsh looking.

It seemed that everywhere I looked was another beautiful vista.

But what I really wanted was to get out into the landscape, and do some hiking.  This is Santa Elena Canyon, seemingly the only break in a long escarpment.  It had caught my eye from miles away.

When I took the path down to the Rio Grande, I discovered several canoers just putting their boats in the water.

The path climbed steeply up the right side of the canyon, and soon I was out of the hot sun and into the cool shade, looking down at the greenish-brown river below.

The canyon eventually narrows, and there was no way to proceed without a boat.  The water looked shallow enough to wade for a while, though.

I stayed for a while to enjoy the coolness and the sound of the river, and then made my way back out to the truck.  I think this kayaker had the right idea — it would have been a beautiful morning to explore the canyon by boat.

Not far from the canyon I saw a 4WD track on the map that seemed to be a shortcut back to the northern part of the park.  I like getting the tires dirty whenever possible, so decided to take it.  There were a couple of dry stream crossings that required a bit of clearance, but it was a fairly easy drive of about 17 miles overall.

The views from the tops of the ridgelines were worth the drive though!

It was now about noon, and I drove up the steep route to Chisos Basin, which seemed to be one of the most popular areas of the park.  There I went for the loop hike of a few miles.  I saw this sign at the start of the trail, and spent the rest of the hike trying to figure out how to “appear large” on my own.  On the plus side, I now know what a cowering stick figure looks like.  What an odd sign…

As you can see below, the trail was rather rough, but the views were spectacular.

This is spring in Texas, and although it’s still very dry, there were wildflowers in bloom everywhere.  Many of the cacti had buds as well, but only a few had open flowers.

The distances in the park are really quite large, so by the time I returned from my hike and drove back down the mountain, it was midafternoon.  I guessed that I would have time to do one more hike, though, so drove to the Rio Grande Village.  I walked down to the edge of the water.  In the picture below, Mexico is on the right bank, and the US is the left bank.

I wondered a bit sarcastically if they would bother to change this sign if they go ahead with building a wall…!

My final stop was Boquillas Canyon.  The trail down to the canyon there was only 1.4 miles, so I decided to do one last hike for the day.  In retrospect, this was a mistake.  Read on.

I climbed a rather steep hill, and had a beautiful view of the Rio Grande below, before descending the other side.

Near the river I found these lovely little wire scorpions for sale to support a school, but had left all my cash in the car.  I also saw a sign saying welcome from “the Mexican Singing Jesus,” who turned out to be a very stately looking older gentleman singing Mexican songs.  When he wasn’t singing, he yelled to someone on the Mexican side of the river, where I could just see a small boat hidden, so clearly this was one of those dangerous illegal immigrants, come into the country to take over the wire scorpion industry.

The canyon was pretty, but it was starting to get hot.  As it turned out, it was about 100 degrees F (38 degrees C), but I didn’t know that at the time.  I was wearing a hat and drinking water all the time, and felt fine and energetic.

The river here was so shallow that I could easily have walked across to Mexico.

I took off my boots and walked in the river for a ways, and the water was almost warm.

I sat and enjoyed the scene for a little while, but it was late afternoon now and I still had a long drive to get back to my camp, so decided to leave.

I started out well, but the steep climb back out of the canyon made me feel quite hot and out of breath.  My heart was beating very quickly, I noticed.  And when I stopped to catch my breath, I started to feel faint.  I rested a bit and tried again, but was on the verge of passing out.  I kept drinking my water, but didn’t have much left, and it didn’t seem to help.  Luckily, these four men came along and noticed that I needed help.  I had seen them earlier touring through the park on their Harleys, and no doubt they had seen me too.  They stayed with me, gave me some of their water, and a shoulder to lean on as I tried to walk back to the truck.  I was getting worse, though, when an off-duty ranger out hiking with his family came along.  He noticed that I was no longer sweating, and poured cold water on my arms, neck, and head.  With that, I finally started to recover a bit, and was eventually able to walk slowly back to my truck with the help of my entire posse, where I got in the air conditioning, and drank lots of juice and water.  The ranger’s opinion was that I was bordering on heat stroke, but since the nearest hospital was two hours away, and I was by then talking coherently again and drinking lots of water, he thought I would be ok.  It could have been quite dangerous if I passed out while alone out there, but thanks to these guys who stayed with me, I came though it ok.

I was able to get more water and some bottles of Gatorade at the shop near my campsite, and kept drinking as much as possible.  I had quite a bad headache in the morning, and was still dizzy and weak for a few days, but I came though it all remarkably well.  As I was leaving my camp in the morning, I discover this little hare under my truck, where it might have spent the night hiding from coyotes.  There were lots of hares and rabbits around.

I stopped to refuel at the nearest town, and found these old cars just sitting in a nearby lot.  Cars seem to survive well out there in the desert, and these had very little rust.

So that was my adventure on the Mexican border.  I would have sworn that I felt fine and was drinking enough just two minutes before I started to lose consciousness, so I’ve learned a lesson about how quickly dehydration and heat stroke can sneak up on you.  That’s rather typical of me, I suppose… I’m perfectly fine, until suddenly… I’m not.  But I’m glad I got to see so much of Big Bend National Park, in spite of the adventure.  It’s a strange place, bordering two worlds, both arid and lush green, wild and civilized, very remote and yet accessible.  Cool.