Back to Big Bend

We’ve come back to Big Bend National Park to be campground hosts, this time in the Chisos Basin. Our first official day will be February 3, but we decided to come down a little early and spend some time on the west side of the park.

As we approached our departure date of January 20, snow began to appear in the forecast for Colorado. Not wanting to pull a trailer through snow, we left a couple of days earlier than planned and spent our first night in Chatfield State Park (on the south side of the Denver metro area). Dinner was delivered to our trailer by our good friends Tom & Ginger. After a hectic day closing down the house, doing seemingly hundreds of last minute tasks and driving to Chatfield in rush hour traffic, it was just what we needed.

We slowly moseyed south over the next several days. Sugarite Canyon State Park in northern New Mexico was beautiful, and we may try to stop there again on the way home. We caught up with Susannah’s cousin Steve and wife Cheryl near Roswell while staying at Bottomless Lakes State Park. Steve used to be the park superintendent and now that he has retired, ranches right across the road. Davis Mountains State Park was our first stop in Texas (more about getting there later), where it was just a short drive up the road to McDonald Observatory. And then we drove the last 122 miles to Big Bend.

The largest telescope at the observatory is 107 inches. We were able to see it (but not see through it) during the day. It’s hard to get a sense of scale looking at the second photo below, but the roundish, silver plate that looks like a garbage can lid is about the size of a garbage can lid. So, it’s a big telescope!

Now we’re snuggled into Cottonwood Campground. Most days we hike several miles before running errands, doing laundry and minor repairs to the trailer or catching up with email and phone calls. We can check email only on Susannah’s computer at the Castalon Visitors Center half a mile from the campground. Another half mile up the road we can get a weak cell phone signal. This is relevant because of that “getting there” reference above. The road between Carlbad, NM and Pecos, TX is one giant pothole after another what with all the oil and gas rig traffic. Unfortunately, the trailer fell into one so we now have two cracked refrigerator shelves. Finding new ones to order took both phone calls and internet searches and therefore several trips back and forth between wi-fi and cell service – not to mention a hefty charge to the credit card. I’m at the visitors center now composing this, but with any luck, the next post will be written from the Chisos Basin in our trailer using our own DSL line.

Susannah and Velocity in Cottonwood Campground