Day 19 – To Big Bend National Park

The others on this RV trip with us are not going to Big Bend NP so we are leaving Carlsbad this morning as early as we can because we have quite a distance to go to get to our campground in Texas.  We are taking route 285 heading into Texas.  On our way, we pass this drilling rig.  Not sure if it is for oil or water; since we have seen a number of water tankers while driving.

Shortly after passing Pecos, Texas, self appointed home of the world’s first rodeo, we had this view of our road. 

As we are getting closer to Fort Stockton, we have views like this.

One of the ranches we have past. 

After passing through Fort Stockton we switch to route 385 south, how about this view? 

Route 385 takes us right into Big Bend NP and we reach the perimeter of the park.  The entrance station is only about ½ mile from this sign, but the Park headquarters is still 29 miles from here.

As we begin to get close to the Panther Junction Visitor Center and where we will need to turn south on the park road, Carmen was able to get this picture.  That is Panther Junction at the base of the mountain.  Not sure, what we thought we’d see here, but this is NOT what we expected, it is way more.  The desert and mountains here are really nice looking.

We have to go through this tunnel, on “dead man’s curve” and it doesn’t look like we will fit, so we take it slow and check to make sure we go through okay.  We go down the middle with no problem.  The only thing, when you are looking at the mountains, you don’t know if they are in the US or Mexico.  Oh by the way, from Panther Junction (the Visitor Center) it was another 23 miles to get to the Rio Grande Village campground where we will park the motorhome.

Shortly after passing through the tunnel we park the RV at the Rio Grande Village campground.  It is late so we have just enough time to park and get set up before it gets too dark.