This winter we left Kansas and drove straight south to Brownsville, Texas, which was as far south as we could make it in the state. We spent the remainder of February following the Mexican border through small Texan towns trying to escape the unseasonal heat wave until we made it to Big Bend National Park.
At the very southern tip of Texas is the home of Starbase. The rockets were just a few feet away!
It was baffling to us how spread out everything was. Our last Walmart was 2 hours from the town closest to the park, which was then another hour's drive to the park entrance, and then an additional 45 minutes to our campsite! But it was well worth the drive. Neither of us knew of the park before getting a few recommendations from friends that month. It was stunning!
We were visiting during spring break (oops), so it was actually quite crowded, but we luckily secured a campsite for the evening. The next morning we woke up to hike Chisos Basin, plus an extra excursion to Emory peak.
Emory Peak!
On this day at the park, there were volunteers setup at the trailheads to ask how long you planned to hike, how much water and food you packed, and if you had headlamps. As we passed hikers of all levels, it became apparent why the volunteer tent was setup. The trails were beautiful, but a lot of the hike was fully exposed to the sun, and it was *hot*. For us, it was 12 miles of fun plus 3 miles of misery.
After our Big Bend adventures, we continued our travels through Marfa, El Paso, and exited Texas into the deserts of New Mexico.
We drove through Texas for 2 reasons: 1. It was warm 2. We wanted a good understanding of how big Texas is (it's really quite large)
It's unlikely that we'll ever road trip through Texas again, but there is some strong sense of accomplishment associated with how much of the state we were able to see this winter.
We even got Stan onto a beach a few times!
We may or may not have had a brief excursion into Mexico as well.
