In the desert with the Coyotes

We woke up early and packed the tent up quickly before heading off to Kathy's Kosmic Kowgirl Kafe for breakfast. People say that Austin is weird, but Terlingua comes a close second. Kathy's Kafe is a pink bus at the edge of the road. I choose a breakfast burrito with everything in it while Em had an English muffin. It is a really friendly cafe and we spoke to a few people who had again commented that "we weren't from around here".

The sun was bright in the blue sky as we heading off into the park with the first stop at the Grapevine Hills for a walk on the trail. It was weird to be hiking in the heat in November. Em even complained about the heat saying she preferred the Houston weather, though I was enjoying the dry desert air. At the end of the trail there was a balancing rock and then we returned the same way.








Today was a day of driving around the park seeing as much as possible. Next on the list was the Hot Springs near the South East corner of the park with other views of the Chisos mountains as we drove around. The Hot Spring is one of a number of hot springs on the banks of the Rio Grande and a man made 'bath' has been made to contain the water for a bit before it overflows into the river. While we were dipping our toes in the water a number of people decided to swim across the river to Mexico for a visit. We didn't feel like following as the water was icy and if you get caught there is a big fine.

Next stop, Boquillas Canyon which is as far South East as you can get in the park. Again it is on the Rio Grande. Walking along the river towards the canyon there was little piles of trinkets, gem stones, etc with notices of how much they cost. We then saw some Mexicans on the other side of the river watching the piles. We think that they sneak across the river, leave their wares and then swim back across the river until the end of the day before picking up their money.

It was a long drive (60 miles) out of the North East of the park to were we were camping that night and we saw some more javelinas crossing the road. The male one bristled up the hair on his back when he saw us, before gruffly herding his family back off the road. On arriving at Stillwell Ranch we found out that tent camping was 'primitive' i.e. in the middle of nowhere about a mile from the ranch. We pitched our tent while about 8 deer moseyed on by. As it got dark we built a campfire, though we didn't need it for heat as it was still very warm. We cooked chilli, beans and corn for dinner, proper cowboy food and sat out until late listening to the coyotes howling all around. Em didn't need a pee in the middle of the night, I wonder why!

A long 10 hours drive home with a mystery traffic jam about 40 miles from Houston. For entertainment we saw lots of impatient people driving over the grass ditch to get to the frontage road and then trying to rejoin further up. Its a wonder no one sunk in mud.