Chisos Mountains, Big Bend National Park

     The day began with a beautiful view of the night sky after the moon had set and before the sun began to rise.  There are almost no lights for hundreds of miles so the stars are amazingly, brilliantly, awesomely bright.  It was like seeing the stars and planets from outer space.  I tried to go back to sleep again, but instead I went outside to watch the sun rise.  What a perfect beginning to my day!
     Big Bend has three big ecosystems - the Chihuahuan desert, the Chisos Mountain range, and the Rio Grande river flood plain.  We set off to explore the Chisos mountains today.  Our first stop was at the Panther Junction Visitor Center to watch a movie which introduced us to the features of the park.       Then we drove from our campsite at 1850' elevation to the Chisos Mountains Lodge at 5400' elevation.     We prepared for fairly cool weather at the higher elevation, but it was in the upper 70's.  The Chisos Mountains is the only mountain range completely within the boundaries of a National Park.  They were created by a volcanic disturbance which pushed rock and lava into impressive towers.  This area of the park has the only lodging in the park and the only food service.  After taking a short nature hike we shopped at the small general store and then had lunch at the lodge.  It was not the huge, old impressive lodge like those found at Glacier Park or Yosemite, but lunch was good and the view out over the mountains was spectacular.
     The park has good paved roads in many places, as well as many gravel roads which lead to some of the lesser sites.  We saw warnings on the map and in the park literature about the need for four wheel drive and high clearance vehicles to travel some of the roads.  One of these "Primitive" dirt roads leads to a hot spring at the site of the ruins of an old resort. In the early 1900's J. O. Langford built an adobe house, a stone bathhouse, and brushwood bathing shelters, a store and a motor court, consisting of seven attached cabins. The ruins along with the original cement pool which gathers water from the springs can be found at the end of a 1.5 mile "primitive" dirt road.  We have driven a lot of rough roads so we drove ahead.  There were some big dips where the road had washed out and a very narrow, very steep section.  But we ended up at the old resort site, right on the Rio Grande.
    Some folks were bathing in the river, others at the hot springs.  We could see a shelter on the Mexican side of the river where a couple folks were sitting.  Some carved walking sticks and other items were in a display on the ground at the parking lot.  There are many warnings about not buying anything from Mexican vendors who walk across the river to make sales.  The border patrol cruises through the park regularly.  It is an interesting area.
    To top off our very nice day a javelina - a creature that looks like a pig but isn't - walked into the campground for a visit.  Not a charming visitor, but interesting.  I like much more the dozens of perky road runners who dash across the roads looking for insects.  Hoping for a cooler day tomorrow.