Even though we stayed up far too late last night watching Storm Chasers on tv, we got up early and departed Del Rio for Big Bend National Park. Big Bend was originally the anchor park of the trip (meaning, the main park we were excited about seeing) but hitting it so late in the trip has reduced some of our excitement. In the end, we cannibalized one of the two days we had originally scheduled for the park in order to stop by Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
After arriving in Big Bend, our first order of business was making sure that we hit all five visitor centers to get all of the passport stamps for the unit. At the first visitor center, we chatted with the ranger about our options for the day and night. Apparently, we’re here for the busiest week of visitation – not only is the lodge full, but the campgrounds will be full by early afternoon. That presented us with a bit of a challenge, as we had decided to keep our plans flexible until we saw how much there was to do there. We now had to make a quick decision about whether to camp and stay an additional day (and not doing Carlsbad), or leaving the park at dusk and moving on to a motel in Alpine, 100 miles away. After considering our options, we decided to get the hotel in Alpine, and if we were feeling bad about missing something at Big Bend we could simply get up early and make the drive in.
In the end, we made the right decision – we were able to see most of what we had wanted to, and even though we didn’t get to do any of the hikes we had planned, we definitely got a sense of the park. We’ll be back – next time with a kayak – and can hit the trails then. Part of the decision centered around the date – it’s New Year’s Eve and we wanted to be in hotel with television and internet. Earlier in the morning, I had reserved a Best Western via my iPhone. Since I barely had coverage at the visitor center, I had some trouble getting the reservation made. In fact, I lost the room I was reserving in the middle of the confirmation process – leaving no additional rooms available at the lowest price point. In the end, however, I was able to finangle the staff to give us a better room – a king suite – for the lowest room rate.
After dropping off the bags and enjoying the great room for a few minutes, we headed across the street to the Buffalo Rose restaurant across the street. Though the service was a bit slow, the food was plentiful and we enjoyed the dinner. After that, it was off for dessert and then back to the room to watch some tv, get online, celebrate the new year, and relax after another long day.
Tomorrow we’re off to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
