Panther Junction and Rio Grande Village

The weather was beautiful this morning, and we were up semi-early in spite of the time change. Sasha and I took a spin around the park and took this photo of our site.

The park is filling up fast, probably because it's Spring Break season. We expect the sites on either side to be occupied by this evening. There is a "Main Street" to the park, and every site was occupied last night there. Kids were playing ball in the street, BBQ's were flaming, and groups of adults were enjoying the warm evening.

Today our itinerary included a visit to the Rio Grande Village, Boquillas river overlook, and, along the way, stops at as many POI's as we can squeeze in.

Our first stop was Dugout Wells, where a windmill water pump continues to pump groundwater, even though the surrounding ranch has long disappeared.

In absolutely the middle of a desert, an oasis appears! Ya gotta wonder how deep that old well is….

A bit further east we pulled off onto Hot Springs Road. Strange that a natural hot spring exits in this area, but when you think of the massive volcanic activity that has occurred here over the, oh, last 100 million years or so, maybe it's not so strange after all. A short hike (the sign said 1/4 mile, but it must be a Texas size 1/4 mile!), brought us to the remnants of a resort and spa built to allow guests to spend time at the hot spring. It's a beautiful site along the Rio Grande and the geologic formations are unusual to say the least.

One abandoned building, built of native materials, blends so well into the background that it's almost invisible.

The Rio Grande slows and widens a bit here, and provides a welcome bit of greenery. This must have been a stunning vista for the spa guests!

A huge Palm tree flourishes outside the old hotel building.

Walking along a cliff with amazing layers of sediment,

we passed rock art from native peoples,

and eventually got to the hot spring, which was, strangely enough, located right beside the Rio Grande! In fact the small pool has been constructed so that excess water from the spring spills into the river.

The road into and out of the hot spring site is a divided highway. One lane in. One lane out.

Ultimately, we reached our goal, the end of the road at Boquillas. The border crossing is via boat, and the taxi's on the Mexican side are burros, so we didn't participate.

We noticed that someone from south of the border had come across the river and set up an unattended "store".

The Rio Grande at this point flows through a wide valley before turning north and again cutting through the same uplift that we saw yesterday at Saint Elena Canyon.

Just visible in the center distance, Boquillas Canyon is the terminus of a 3/4 mile trek. Since it was getting late in the day, and warmer by the minute, we decided not to leave Sasha in the car to explore that area. Dogs are not allowed on trails inside the park officially, but we've seen plenty of "unofficial" canine companions!

We returned to Terlingua in mid-afternoon, pleased at having seen yet another facet of the beauty of Big Bend National Park. Our trip today encompassed 104 miles and millions of years. Can't beat that.