Jan 3, 2023 Day 1 Big Bend National Park, TX

Leaving Fort Stockton, the views became magnificent as far as the eye could see. The mountains of Big Bend were in the distance, looking like a watercolor painting in shades of blues and purples with low-hanging clouds in similar shades. The lowlands are desert-like with cacti, rocks, and an occasional tree. Sometimes we see cattle, but we wonder what they eat and how they get enough water to survive but they must.

It is a sparsely populated area here too and traffic is light heading south. Enroute, we see a massive solar project that we later learn is newly installed, ground-mounted solar project covering 106 acres. These panels supply clean energy to power over 3,000 homes.

We gradually reach the foothills of the Chiso Mountains. This mountain range is located entirely within the borders of the 800,000 acres of Big Bend National Park. One of the first mountains we photograph is Elephant Mountain with an elevation of 6,119, it looks like a giant elephant lying down.

Our campground is Maverick Ranch RV Park in Lajitas, Texas. It is surrounded by the hills of Quiet Canyon and the Lajitas Mesa. This is a dark sky community and there is an ‘all lights out’ rule starting each night at 9:00pm. And when the lights go out, the stars are amazing. Big Bend has the lowest light pollution of all the National Parks in the lower 48 states, making for great star gazing. We were too tired tonight to stay up for the show tonight but certain we will be able to in the next day or two.

After a month on the road (woohoo!) we’ve gotten fairly adept at setting up camp. I think it takes us less than 30 minutes to be fully hooked up, detached and set up inside and out. I worked a bit and later we took Justice to the dog park. The majority of campers have some dog along with them and we see a lot of Goldens, but Justice is always the biggest one – and the most handsome. I had someone tell me that he’s magnificent. We met a couple from Louisiana, Carol & Tom, who are traveling in a 25′ Airstream along with their two children and Ranger, their Corgi dog. Super nice people who after learning we were from Ohio, told us how they ‘love Joe Burrow’ and that they used to be Saints fans but are now Bengal fans!

After grilling supper on the Blackstone, and sitting by the Solo stove campfire, we both said, ‘this is what we’ve been waiting for this trip’.