Big Bend National Park is 101 miles from Alpine and encompasses over 800,000 acres of desert, rivers and canyons. Our senior pass got us in, this pass is a great thing! Big Bend is the only park to contain an entire mountain range within its borders, the Chisos. The Rio Grande River runs through Bend and separates Mexico and Texas. When we left the park the Border Patrol had a station to stop all vehicles. We saw a car that was being searched but they just looked in our Jeep and asked what country we were citizens of. 

We took the Jeep on a rollercoaster drive along the Rio Grande and through the desert with amazing views of the remote wilderness and its plants and animals. We saw numerous Road Runners, rabbits, javelin (a type of pig), horses and birds.  On the remote Jeep trail we met a fellow adventurer that informed us we were looking at the rare Colima Warbler, a bird that is only found in this area in the U.S.

We hiked the Santa Elena trail along the Rio Grande and saw the 1,500 foot canyon walls on the other side and Park Rangers  in canoes patrolling along the river. The Mexico side of the Rio Grande was a high canyon wall with just a few areas that might be passable, but the river was swift moving.

 Rio Grande!