Week 2: Canyons, Rivers, and Mountains, Oh My!

We survived our second week on the road! And not only survived, but maybe even thrived a little bit?! We spent this whole week in Big Bend National Park. Neither of us have been to Big Bend before so we were excited to explore a new place. Big Bend is a HUGE park. It takes several hours to drive through the whole park. We booked a campsite in Cottonwood Campground which is at the very southern end of the park, just along the Mexico border. We didn’t have any electric, water hookups, or dump stations at this campground so we had to be a little more conscious of those things throughout the week. But we did have toilets to use which felt like such a luxury even though it was just a pit toilet.

We woke up Monday morning just outside of San Antonio to 30 degree temperatures. We made the seven hour drive to our campground in Big Bend. It was an hour and half drive through the park from the entrance to our campsite so we got to see a decent amount of the scenery on our drive in. When we arrived at the campsite it was about 75 degrees which was so nice compared to the frigid temperatures we had experienced that morning. I have to work 30 hours a week for my job so Trevor and I are both trying to put that much time in each week. We both switched off working and driving throughout the day.

Tuesday morning we woke up early and got some work done, then did some hiking in the afternoon/evening. We hiked the Santa Elena Canyon Trail which follows the Rio Grande River into the Santa Elena Canyon. The river serves as the border between the US and Mexico so we crossed the river just to say we’ve been to Mexico 😊 The trail was beautiful and shaded which was nice as temps were in the mid 80s for the day. We also hiked a short trail called the Dorgan-Sublett Trail which took us to the remnants of some residences built in the park years ago. That night as we were laying in bed we heard some rustling outside our van. We looked out our bed window and saw about 10 javelinas wandering around right outside our van. Javelinas basically look like wild pigs. We laid in bed and watched them searching for food for a little while.

Wednesday was a very hot day with temps in the 90s. We decided to not do any hikes that day and just got some work done and worked on booking campsites and planning our route for the rest of our trip. Trevor decided to buzz cut his hair which we’re both getting used to 😊 That evening as I was showering I ran out of water mid shower while my soap and conditioner still needed to be rinsed. There was a spigot in our campground that had water but not something we could hook up to our water tank so Trevor so nicely went and filled a bucket of water for me. Unfortunately, the water was freeeezing cold so Trevor slowly poured it into our water tank so that it could be run through the water heater. But once Trevor got enough water in the tank it seemed that the water pump wasn’t pulling the water. Meanwhile I’m standing in the shower for 30 minutes just waiting to rinse everything off. Eventually we decided something was wrong with the water pump and there was no way I was going to be getting heated water - the water pump was a problem for tomorrow. So Trevor went again and filled a bucket with freezing cold water. By this time the soap had pretty much dried to my body so I decided to just dry off and lean my head over the tub and rinse my hair with the freezing water.

Thursday we decided we wanted to do a longer hike in the morning while it was still cool. We drove about an hour to the area we wanted to hike in the Chisos Basin. We hiked the Lost Mine trail which was a 5 mile hike up into the mountains. We really enjoyed the hike and the views along the way. Once we got back from the hike, we went to a nearby campground to fill up our water and try to find the issue with our water pump. After about two hours of trying with no success, Trevor said his best guess was that air was trapped in the pipes and not allowing water to be pushed through. He said his last attempt was to turn on the water and try to suck on the sink faucet and pull the air through the pipes. So we said a little prayer and hoped that he was right..and he was! We were so happy to have running water again. We made a little dinner and made the hour drive back to our campground as the sun was setting. As we laid in bed that night we laughed at the fact that the only things we had accomplished that day was going on a hike and filling our water - but we’re learning that’s how some days go in the van.

Since we didn’t get a lot of work done on Thursday, we spent most of the day on Friday catching up on work. Saturday we drove about an hour to the Rio Grande village and did a couple small hikes along the way. At lunchtime Trevor wanted to watch the Columbus Crew game so we parked at the camp store to do some laundry while he watched the game. And we had a PILE of laundry to do. I couldn’t stop laughing at how full our laundry bag was while Trevor carried it to the laundry room. Once laundry was done, we did one last trail that followed the Rio Grande river. We saw some wild donkeys along the path which was neat to see. As we were heading back to our campground for the evening we were running low on gas so decided to stop and fill up. We didn’t realize that you had to pay inside for the gas and the camp store was closed for the day. We started to freak out a bit because we knew we could get back to the campground for the night but wouldn’t have enough to make it to a gas station the next day. We knew there was one more gas station in the park on our way back to the campground so we were hoping and praying that it wasn’t closed as well. We pulled into the gas station and were relieved to see that we could pay at the pump. That night we did a video call with our families and enjoyed catching up with them. We spent one last night at Big Bend and set out the next morning for Guadalupe Mountain and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks.

Despite a few hiccups along the way, this week seemed to go a lot smoother than the first week. It was nice to stay at one place for the whole week and have plenty of time to see all we wanted to see. It’s starting to sink in more and more that this is not just a vacation we will be headed home from soon - this is our way of life for the next little while. Last week when things were feeling a little rocky at times, I was definitely feeling a little homesick and questioning why I would ever choose to do this. But this week has had a number of bright spots and made me excited for all we will get to see yet. I know there will be more rough weeks along the way that will make me miss home, but having Trevor to do this with makes the rough times a whole lot easier. I’m thankful for a partner that takes care of me, is patient with me, and evens out my occasional pessimism with his optimism.