There was only one National Park remaining on my itinerary and I thought that a remote park in Texas probably wouldn’t impress me too much after everywhere that I had been on this trip. How very wrong I was. After a VERY long day of driving I arrived at Maverick Ranch PV Park, which is part of Lajitas Golf Resort and a new level of fancy for me. It was nice to get settled in amongst the other RVs.
Early that morning I drove into the Chisos Mountains area and crossed my fingers to get a parking spot at the Lost Mine trailhead but no luck. I decided to spend the morning hiking the Window trail which is around five miles through a beautiful valley and some impressive stairs built into the landscape. The hike ends at a window view into the valley.
I was extremely lucky and didn’t have to wait very long for a parking spot at the Lost Mine trailhead. Everyone said that this is one of the top hikes in Big Bend and they weren’t wrong. The views were incredible and everything was so surprisingly green. The hike back to the parking lot was one of those afternoons where the light is so prefect and beautiful.
Celebrated the first day of hiking with a burrito and cider while watching the sunset outside my camper. And that night it was a beautiful view of the Milky Way and millions of stars. The next day was another long day of touring the park. I started with a drive out to and hike of Santa Elena Canyon. The hike starts by crossing the Rio Grande and then wading back to the start of the trail on the US side of the river. The size of the canyon is extremely impressive.
It was time for a dirt road adventure so I bounced my way down the 6.4 mile Grapevine Hills Road to get to the Grapevine Hills trail for a hike to Balanced Rock. The landscape was so different from the other areas of the park and all the rock formations made it feel a little other worldly. The hike up to Balanced Rock is a bit of a rock scramble.
These were my final days camping in a remote location. I was so sad that it was all coming to an end but there was also a part of me that knew I’d been on the road long enough and it was time for the next chapter of my life. My last morning while I was hooking up Wolfie to the truck, I overheard a father and daughter talking and the little girl was saying how she was going to be like me one day and the father was so proud but nowhere near how proud I was of myself. It is so unbelievable to me that I set out and completed this journey.
