Susannah and I have begun our tour of duty as campground hosts in Rio Grande Village (RGV), Big Bend National Park.  Our first two weeks were occupied with intensive training where we learned about the history, ecology, geology, archeology and culture of the Park. During that time we parked our trailer up at the Park headquarters – Panther Junction – where we had easy access to our various instructors, a library for employees and volunteers, the main visitors center (there are 5), a US post office and laundry facilities.

The best training session – from our point of view – was 2 days on the Rio Grande in a canoe with the rangers from the River District.  We were given basic canoe lessons and then turned loose on the wild and untamed Rio – ready to run boat-crushing rapids. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the river flow was only 100 CFS and averaged 12 inches deep; the rapids were mostly riffles.  But the scenery was grand, and the rangers cooked and cleaned. All we had to do was sit back and relax.  It was tough, but the new rangers need to practice before the really important people show up.

At the end of week two we packed up the trailer and moved to our permanent campsite at RGV campground.  We have water, sewer, phone, electricity, Internet (which is going to require some servicing by Big Bend Telephone to bring it up to my standards of reliability).  Before you think “too cushy – not really camping”, remember, we are roughing it. For example, there is no radio reception, and we don’t have an ice maker, microwave or dishwasher.  And for Superbowl Sunday we are going to have to visit with other campers who have Dish TV.  I’m certain there are other amenities that we are going without, but it will take a while for me to think of them. Probably because when we look out our door we see Sierra del Carmen. See photo at the top of the page, taken at sunset.

We share our hosting duties with a couple of folks who were here last year and know the ropes. The primary activities are: answering questions, cleaning campsites, checking camping permits and monitoring campers for violations.  Since we have a “Host” sign outside our front door we get frequent visitors – and have had some interesting conversations.  Violators and scofflaws are mostly folks who run their generators after hours, build wood fires or leave food outside their cars/trailers.  The food can be a problem because of javelinas who appear to eat most everything – including Fluffy or Fido. They will attack a cooler or a person because they have the eyesight of a blind cave fish and the disposition of a rabid dog.  Really fun animals…

And speaking of fires…To ensure an interesting start to our first day on the job as hosts, mother nature whipped up 50+ MPH winds that brought down a main line transformer.  The sparks ignited a wildfire that spread quickly to the highway between us and headquarters.  The lack of power was our first hint that something was wrong.  Then we began to hear reports of camper evacuations on our park radio.  A bit later we noticed people driving aimlessly through the RVG campground.  Putting 2 and 2 together, we figured that the rangers were sending evacuated people down to our campground.

Susannah and I decided to greet the bewildered newcomers at the campground entrance and direct them to a campsite after assuring them we wouldn’t charge them again since they had already paid for a campsite elsewhere.  Unfortunately some of these folks didn’t have any camping equipment. Either they weren’t camping at all or were set up on the other side of the road block. We seriously considered knocking on the doors of those with the largest motorhomes at RGV, asking if they could take in a couple of people for the night. Fortunately, after a chat over the radio, we were told that non-campers would be given an escort out through the fire zone back to safety.

The fire, 4 days later, is mostly out after burning over 2000 acres.  At its peak the park brought in a helicopter and 2 crews – Los Diablos (from the 3 villages just over the border) and the Zuni Hotshots – to assist the Big Bend firefighters.  We, however, trapped by our official duties, could only clean up campsites and monitor reservations.  Plans were made to help eat melting ice cream at the Rio Grande Village Store, but they trucked the frozen goodies to other areas of the park that still had electricity.  We followed suit by moving our frozen food back to the headquarters where the power had been restored.   All-in-all it was a good learning experience and we picked up some useful radio protocols as well as having the opportunity to take some unusual photos.

Having survived our first three days on the job, it was now time for three days of off duty.  We spent the first day grocery shopping in Study Butte (STOO-dee-BYOOT).  This is a 90-mile round trip to a tiny grocery store in a town of maybe 500 people at most.  But they have cornflakes and ice cream – what more do you need?  We also took a tour of “ghost town” Terlingua.  I don’t know about the ghosts, but the zoning laws are clearly among the dearly departed.  Maybe this is the last “hippie” enclave?  The second day we did various household chores. Today, the last of our three day weekend, we finally got to do some hiking.  We hiked a loop a bit over 6 miles, some on trails we’ve done before and some not. Neat canyons, geology and desert vegetation, as usual.