2022 Spring Break Big Bend

Wednesday afternoon before the trip, I got a call from school nurse during a meeting. Nurse said Jackson had a sprained ankle and we needed to pick him up. When he still hopped around on Friday, I whispered to Will - how are we going to do our Big Bend trip with him? 

Our family's first trip to Big Bend was planned around hiking. Will did research for both the state park and national park, picked out a few trails for each day. I was not able to get anything inside the national park back in December and reserved primitive campsites in the state park instead. Our first three nights were reserved at Presidio to give us an opportunity to explore beyond the interior of the state park.

We decided to follow our original plan and leave on Saturday morning. It's about a 9 hours drive to Presidio so we took our time to get ready for the road. At 9am, we were all strapped in and ready to go. Will turned the key and the car won't start. He just moved the car out of the garage one hour ago. All of us were flabbergasted on the timing of our jeep battery's end of life. Two and a half hours later, with a new battery, we finally hit the road. 

By this trip, our kids are long road trip champs. We packed our lunch and loaded our iPad. We made as few stops as possible and reached our rental house around 9pm. We passed the Marfa lights viewing area in the dark but didn't see anything. :-)   

Sunday started the daylight saving time. Presidio has a different time zone than it's Mexican neighbor city Ojinaga. Our phones picked up different time depending on which area we were in the house. We started our day in a time confusion. 

Our house was a cute 102 years old adobe house walking distance from the border. It is charming and spacious. We loved it as our base for the three nights we stayed. We were also located on the downtown street. Given the size of Presidio, every house in view seemed to be downtown. Ojinaga is a much bigger town. When we drove in last night, we saw lights extended far beyond. Most of those lights were from Ojinaga. When I went to Bean Café to get our sandwich for our afternoon hikes, I chatted with the server. She said the locals go to the Mexican side for grocery and restaurants as it is much cheaper there. Border crossing during the week takes about 10-15 minutes. Later I read that Anthony Bourdain came to Presidio for Parts Unknown. And the mayor took him to Ojinaga for authentic Mexican food.  

Will picked two state park hikes for us on Sunday. Hoodoo trail and Closed Canyon trail. The first trail was all under the afternoon sun. Norah started to complain about a headache. We tried hard to convince a limping Jackson and a headache Norah to come to the second hike. And we all loved Closed Canyon so much! I walked in and was brought back to Petra. I told Will that and he agreed. The narrow canyon carved out by water exposed layers of red color. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some grand carving showing up at the end. Kids loved this hike so much too, they begged to come back. And we did.

Monday is Will's birthday. We drove to Big Bend National Park to hike Chisos mountain. It's a long drive from Presidio to BBNP, about 2 hours to the park entrance. When we approached the park entrance, our car slowed down in a long line. It's the line waiting to get inside the park. Park ranger said today was one of the busiest days in the park. He registered about 100 cars per hour.  When we turned to Chisos basin, the line for cars to come in didn't move. They have run out of parking spots.

We decided to abandon our original plan of hiking lost mine trail or window trail. We chose Pine Canyon trail since it requires 4 wheel drive and would screen out the majority of people. It's a 5 mile round trip trial. The first two miles were under the scorching sun, the final shading part was steep and slippery. Jackson's ankle didn't allow him to hike the final part so he missed the big drop off at the end. On our way back, we drove in the basin and looked at the window view. 

We got home very late and still had a small celebration for Daddy. I made a cake the night before so we could have our candle blowing and chocolate cake eating fun in a place far away from home. 

Tuesday we took a long time to pack up and check out. We drove to Closed Canyon at 10am to hike there once more and have our picnic lunch. After that, it's time to venture into the interior of the state park. When I reserved our campsite La Mota 1, I noticed its close distance from the main ranger station. Little did I know, it's jeep road between the station and our campsite. And it's unpaved road from highway to the ranger station. The drive off the highway to our campsite took 1.5 hours! We didn't plan to be out of the state park once we drove in. 

Our campsite was legit in the middle of nowhere. The closest campsite to us is 25 minutes drive away. We had two picnic tables and a cover for our use. In the afternoon, we set up camp and took a short survey of the land nearby. We were close to the edge of the park.

Wednesday we hiked Ojito Adentro Trail and Cinco Tinajas Trail. Ojito Adentro is a spring in the desert. Hiking from the dry, barren land to the oasis was such a mind blowing experience. When we stood at the end of the trail looking at the spring water dripping off the green moss, we were moved by the beauty and humbled by nature. We even saw a little toad/frog! 

Cinco Tinajas again reminded me of Petra. It is translated loosely to five water holes. Those pools have water year round. Water brought the gravels and through friction carved out the round pools in the canyon. It was a great climbing experience for Jackson and Norah. Norah asked to come back and we did.

Thursday we hiked the trail near our campground - Leyva trail. It is a loop train of 3.5 miles with an access trail to Cinco Tinajas. We walked past the Petroglyph area. On the way back, Norah and I walked ahead and took a wrong turn. After a mile or so, I realized we were on the same trail this morning. We backtracked and got back on the right path. Will freaked out since I didn't even bring my water with me. It was an exciting ending to our hiking day. It was a windy day so we spent the rest of the afternoon reading and playing games inside the tent. It was also a full moon day and the moon was so bright! 

Friday we woke up at 6:30 and packed up at 8am. Eleven and a half hours later, we were home! This trip was challenging, requiring stamina and determination. It brought our family much closer. We enjoyed our Big Bend camping trip!