Around the World…...to Big Bend National Park
It is not very often that we decide to book an RV and prepare to spend the vacation in a semi desert. The idea was proposed by our manager and the entire team jumped at the opportunity of spending three days in the wilderness. It is almost a year
since we went for this trip but the memories are fresh in all our minds. It was a great team and a marvelous place to visit.
I remember everything vividly.
Everything was planned. The logistics were taken care of by different people in the team. The RV was booked and the rations bought. The enthusiasm was infectious. For one, none of us had traveled in an RV before. And two, the idea of going to one of
the largest parks with canyons and amazing trails was more than exciting. They say, the journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step………in our case the beginning was the turning of 2 keys in those massive RV.s. There were fifteen people including
three kids and two RVs. We started the journey armed with maps and loads of food. We filled all the cabinets in the RV with food including rice and daal and water. For the uninitiated, RV is like a mini house on wheels. It is complete with living room,
kitchen facility, bath room and bed room.
The drive was around twelve hours from Houston. We had a gala time dancing and cooking on a moving vehicle was a challenge in itself .The boys had to drive a long way so they were forgiven and well fed. We made couple of makeshift beds and
slept through the night after a round of antakshri. We drove all night and finally when the girls got up it was morning, and the terrain had changed to magnificent mountains and sand dunes flooded in sunshine.
The desert sunrise is one of the most beautiful rises that I had ever seen. (Now don't ask me how many sun rises I have seen in total). There were beautiful sand mountains everywhere and there was not a living soul in sight. Our first stop was in the middle of nowhere, an RV park. There were moun-tains all around and the climate was pleasantly warm. After freshening up there, we had a healthy breakfast on the picnic benches. We did not pay any particular heed to the crawling beings. All I can
say is that there were all around in a lot of different sizes and shapes.
We planned to see the river Rio Grande which was supposed to border Texas and Mexico or so I was told. It was a good experience as we walked along the course of the deserted river bank on the floor of the canyon. The entire team clicked away pic-
tures in various poses. I am only hoping that those pictures don't go public. As we walked deep into the canyon, we saw nature in a different light. We could almost hear the sound of silence, that is until our over enthusiastic friends started to test their voice quality and the acoustics of the canyon. Walking on the canyon floors there is serenity and tranquility pervading. We picked up several different short trails at random and thoroughly enjoyed our exploits of treading the paths less traveled.
Next halt was the Mule Ear Trail, this trail begins at the Mule Ears overlook which are two huge rocks that looks like the ears of a mule. The land here is low and the hike a little difficult with small stony hills and sand. We started down this trail and after a few slips we finally managed to reach the end of the trail. We clicked away few pics and hurried back up the trail as we were losing sunlight and had to
return back to the campsite. As the night sky descended on the dessert terrain, we stretched out tired bodies and curled up in the RV for a long peaceful sleep.
Our second morning in Big bend national park started with journey to Santa Elena Canyon. The trail begins at the end of the Santa Elena Canyon Road; we had to cross a small creek to get across the canyon road. The water in the creek was pretty low. Once across the creek, we had to climb many concrete steps and cross boulders but the sight that awaited us the end of this path was worth the effort. It was one of the most beautiful places that I have seen. It was nature in its purest elements. There was a walk-way to the top of the canyon and the view was more than spectacular. The river flowing in the middle of the canyon was gently dancing to the rhythm of the zephyr. We met a few people on the trails and exchanged polite hellos. They encouraged us to venture further into the trail. We were not disappointed by
what we saw. It is only in a few places that we find unalloyed peace and this
definitely was one.
We went to the acclaimed hot springs. That was a damp squib as it was the size of a
water tub and there were already people in them enjoying their bath with cases of beer. That did not seem to disappoint the kids and there were soon frolicking in the water. The entire gang then ventured in and had a great time.
The desert moon ever so beautiful, smiled on…….
Big Bend National Park is definitely a place to be visited especially in summer. They offer many activities like river rafting, horse back riding; hiking etc.The booking has to be done at least one week in advance. There are many sites like
http://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm which will give you information on the park and its various activities. These sites also provide you with hotline numbers which can be used for advance booking.
Pravitha Philip
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