Big Bend - The West End

Cottonwood campground, on the west side of Big Bend NP, is a small campground - just 17 sites. It sits on the bank of the Rio Grande and just 8 miles from the mouth of Santa Elena Canyon. We reserved the best site - #17 right next to the group campsite - provided the group site is empty, which it was while we were there, except for the dozen javelina which grazed there several times during the day and night. It was a quiet evening. During the first night we heard a very large pack of coyotes loudly celebrating. The next morning I found some small remaining evidence of the former rabbit they were enjoying. I also watched the moon set into Santa Elena Canyon that morning.

Moon set into the Santa Elena Canyon mouth

On 2/16 We headed down to the beautiful Santa Elena Canyon, that I like to think is named for my lovely wife Elena. Boquillas was nice, but Santa Elena is even more impressive. The Rio Grande has carved a 1,500 foot vertical slice right through the rock. You can wade through Terlingua Creek, then hike in about 0.8 miles until you run out of edge to walk on. Back in 2002 we rafted through the entire canyon. The water was low then, but it’s far lower now.

Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend NP

We visited some old ruins of farms that gave it a try back in the 1920s. Many lasted for a decade or two by pumping water from the river. Now they are just historical sites. The weather has been mild so far. We’ve been in the low 30s or upper 20s most nights, with sunny highs in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Last night only cooled to the mid 50s, and we were in the upper 80s today, though with only 10% relative humidity. 

This afternoon we watched the roadrunners and the dozen javalina eat and play around our campsite, then took a nice siesta. wildlife wildlife1 

The squadron of 12 javelina (peccary) at our campsite.

Roadrunners at our campsite

 

As we were taking our evening walk, a man from Boston asked us where the Rio Grande was and if the water flowing beside our camp site fed into it. He was quite shocked when we told him that narrow, shallow stream of water along our campsite IS the Rio Grande. 

On 2/17 we began the drive out of the national park. We made one more hike, the 5-mile round trip hike to the Chimneys. These volcanic formations just poke up out of the ground. There is a great view of the Santa Elena Canyon slot for most of the way down. We found some petroglyphs and an old shelter area built into one of the chimneys. A cool front came in overnight, and it was sunny and about 60ºF for our hike.

The chimneys hike in Big Bend NP

We headed out of the park into the towns of Terilingua / Study Butte. We cooked all our meals in the van for the first week, so we enjoyed a delicious BBQ meal in old Terlingua. Finally, we headed into Big Bend Ranch State Park where our primitive campsite awaited in Lower Medera Canyon. Adjacent to the campsite is a rest stop with some teepees. We recognized them from our trip 20 years ago through here and did a few Then and Now photos. We had to reverse direction due to the sun angle, and Kendall wasn’t here, but we did our best.

- Paul