Day Two of our Texas trip extravaganza began with two of the most wonderful massages known to man. Mommy lovingly booked massages for Glo and me at the spa at the Gage Hotel, and our friend Elliott may just be the masseuse of the gods. The whole body experience, followed by our feet wrapped in hot towels, combined with the super chill music made it a massage for the books. Oh man, was it nice. Mmm.
Anyway, our Texas journey then led us to Big Bend National Park! This was the first National Park on our list to visit here which will be followed by Carlsbad on Tuesday, Guadalupe Mountains on Wednesday and Thursday, and White Sands on Friday. Let me tell you something about Big Bend. It is BIG! We stayed in Marathon last night, and it's about forty-five minutes from Marathon to the park...entrance. After that, it's another twenty to thirty minutes to the visitor center, and then another forty-ish minutes to either side of the park where we wanted to hike. Woah, that's a lot of driving. Thankfully, Mommy is a driver-extraordinaire and got us around. We decided that since we had less time to hike today because of the aforementioned massages, we would do the river hikes as mentioned on the NPS website about Big Bend. There were four or five, and most were pretty short, so we were pretty sure we could do all of them.
Well, it turns out that the "River" means the Rio Grande River, running all along the bottom edge of Big Bend NP. You know, the giant park? Big Bend is shaped like a triangle, with one road coming in from the top, and branching into two main roads going in opposite directions, so we decided to focus on the right-hand corner for our first day. This was partially due to my Junior Ranger packet being the Centennial edition, and if you did one of the hikes in the right-hand corner, you could get an extra-special patch with the hike's name on it! So we headed to the Hot Springs Canyon Trail. Now, when we went to the Tetons together in August, we found that a lot of frustration came from trails being too busy or closed or whatever, so before leaving the resort, we had looked at what trails were closed or super popular so we could try and avoid those. Thankfully, no trail was too busy because it's January, so that wasn't a concern, and we didn't see any notifications for trail closures. So, we drove the extra thirty minutes after the visitor center to Hot Springs Canyon Trail. The parking lot was empty. Okay, that's fine. And three meters from the parking lot was a sign: "Trail closed due to COVID-19 safety regulations". What the heck?! We had checked this trail specifically, because we figured the hot springs themselves would be closed due to COVID, but NO WHERE, I repeat, NO WHERE, did it say that the trail itself was closed. Holy heck, that was frustrating, and we did out best not to be irritated, but we were a little. So, Plan B. We headed to Boquillas Canyon Trail. It was a moderate trail due to some steep steps up and down, and back up and down on the way back, but the trail length wasn't bad, so we weren't too worried.
The trail wasn't bad at all. Really, it was actually a pretty nice trail, and it had some great views of the Rio Grande. The real experience of the trail though, was the Mexicans. Right? What a strange thing to think about in an American national park. Well, the Rio Grande is the border between US and Mexican territory, and everyone is very aware of that. There is a small Mexican town across the river from the Boquillas Canyon trail called Boquillas. Normally, visitors to the park can take a small ferry across the border along with their passport, and visit Boquillas, and buy Mexican wares, However, COVID has shut the ferry down, and I think the loss of American visitors has made those people a little desperate for money. So, they came up with a creative solution.
As we walked along the river, we noticed two things. Two people walking the trail on horseback, and groups of wire animals and embroiled aprons. We noticed the first group of wares, along with a sign listing the prices in dollars, right before we saw the two men on horses watching us. These men had illegally crossed the river, set up their wares, and would wait there to encourage people to buy, while also ensuring that they could grab whatever money people paid. Along with each group of wares, there was a can or bottle for the money, so the presence of the men was a little confusing at first. They actually started talking to us, and Glo and I responded in Spanish, after which, we started having a little conversation, but we eventually let them know that none of us had any money, and they let us keep going. We passed more stuff for sale, along the path and even saw some canoes on the other side. They also had men on the Mexican side of the river, watching, which again, was a little strange. Anyway, we made it to the end of the trail, and saw the river, which honestly, was really beautiful. We saw the distinct holes in the walls of the canyon, which give it its name, meaning "little mouths" in Spanish. We touched the river, and it was cool, and honestly, it was kind of crazy to touch the Rio Grande! It's such a famous river, and it's kind of wild that it's a border between two countries! As we're sitting there admiring the river, we see a ranger walking up, carrying a plastic sheet, filled with something. Upon closer inspection, we noticed that he seemed to have items like the wares sold by the Mexicans in that plastic sheet. We overheard him talking to an older couple about what was going on, and it turns out that the wares are there every day on the American side of the river, and as they are there illegally, as are the men selling them, rangers have to patrol the river trails to try and keep the Mexicans out of the US. Those men we saw sitting on the Mexican side of the border were lookouts, waiting to see the ranger before letting the men in the US know that he was coming, so they could skedaddle back across the river. Hence, the horses, and the canoes. The ranger gathers up all their wares every day, and confiscates them. He is also licensed to arrest any of them he happens to catch. So, each day, he patrols the trails, absconds the wares, and then has to carry them all back up the trail. What an exhausting job. While this was fascinating, we actually headed back up the trail a few minutes ahead of the ranger, and boy was it interesting. All the wares were gone, and a group of Mexicans was gathered around the canoes on the other side of the river, As we passed the grove of trees where the horse-men were, Glo and I actually noticed two wire animals that had been abandoned and missed by the ranger. They were a dragonfly and a scorpion. We picked them up, and I sat there, feeling bad that they were abandoned, and the Mexicans wouldn't get any money for them. Glo then said that we could keep them, and so began my inner turmoil began. Here we are, rescuing these two handmade items from abandonment, and from imprisonment should the ranger find them on his way back, but also taking two items that could feed an entire family without paying for them. However, there was no way to get money to the Mexicans, so we started down the path, and Mommy suggested we take a picture to document our finds. As we were holding them up, the ranger appeared behind Mommy's shoulder, and the dragonfly and scorpion quickly disappeared behind our backs. He asked us if we were looking for something, as we were right next to where the Mexicans were, and we responded no while trying to distract him from what could be behind our backs.
We felt kind of bad for him, as he has to carry several pounds of stuff, along with his own backpack up the trail, but it also allowed us time to walk quickly ahead and put our wire friends away, me still feeling guilty. We were so interested in how everything went down, since it happened only five minutes after we passed by, and we're a little sad we missed it all happen. We found one last group of wares a foot from the trailhead, with two wire roadrunners, and two wire ocotillos. While my dragonfly was okay, I really had admired the roadrunners when we first saw them for sale, and Mommy and Glo convinced me that I could switch out the dragonfly for the roadrunner, especially since they would all be taken in just a minute anyway by the ranger behind us. So, I did it. I still feel guilty, but also glad that I did take the roadrunner, since not a minute later, our friend walked by, and confiscated those too.
As he was doing so, Mommy sent Glo out to talk to him to find out what trail we should take next, and he suggested the Nature Trail, which he would lead us to once he got back to his Law Enforcement truck. Sure enough, he waited for us once he had pulled out, and led us all the way to the trailhead of the Nature Trail. We were kind fo surprised, because that was way nice of him, but as he put it, "This job is all about public service." We thanked him for his help, and began our short trek down the trail. We saw fish, and turtles, and tons of plants, and surprisingly, more Mexican wares. If only Ranger Rick had known, he would have accompanied us down the trail too. The nature trail was super pretty, and led up a small overlook to the top of a small mountain overlooking the Rio Grande. It's kind of crazy how many birds that are everywhere, and we learned that the Chihuahuan desert is the third most diverse desert in terms of birds in the world. We think we saw a small roadrunner at some point, and we actually saw a two coyotes while driving. This is a totally different landscape from anything I've seen before, and it really is amazing to share it with Mommy, since this is where she grew up, and with Glo, who is seeing it for the first time too.
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