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Winter trip 2026 - Day 9: San Antonio

We were up and on the road by 815, headed into San Antonio. I found the best deal on parking ($5 all day) and we walked a few blocks to get to the Alamo. It opened at 9 and we were one of the first people there.  I really should have brushed up on my Alamo knowledge. The majority of what I knew before getting there came from PeeWee.  We did the self guided tour and started reading, but still confused. This was a church, but then also the site of a battle? Luckily there was a docent there and she gave us a really great overview of the life of this building. Neat history, including the story of why there wasn't originally a roof (stonemason was having an affair with another guys wife, stabbed the other guy, got chased out of town, no one else knew how to build a roof that wouldn't collapse). After we had our fill of the Alamo, we walked about 2 blocks away to the Riverwalk. This was a really cool area, restaurants and bars line the river on each side. I b...
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Winter trip 2026 - Day 8: Desert Driving

Last night was our last final night in the park. Originally we had planned on one more day, but with the heat and sun our hiking was pretty limited after noon each day.  We had a really cool view of the sunrise and then packed up. I decided to start walking out and told Joe to just catch up with me. This trail was even tough on foot.  Outside of the park, but before the first town, we went through a border patrol checkpoint. We have a strict rule of only doing one illegal thing at a time so we weren't really worried about getting stopped. One person appeared to be working, he asked if we are US citizens, we said yes, and he sent us on our way without even looking at our faces.  We headed east on highway 90, which basically follows the Rio Grande until the river turns south near Del Rio. Lots of border patrol, goats, and disappearing towns through this stretch. We spotted what we both assumed was a blimp, without really thinking why anyo...
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Winter trip 2026 - Day 7: Rocks and more rocks

Our site was down in between several hills, so it was tough to get a good view of the sunrise. Neither one of us is quite sure what time it is. My body is on eastern time, my watch and phone switched over to central, and for some reason Joe has been on mountain time. Good thing for us, we got nowhere to be.  We headed back to the center of the park to do a hike in the Chisos Mountains. There's a lodge, visitors center and camp store all grouped together, and we parked there to get to the trailhead for the Window Trail.  Round trip was 6 miles, out and back, and it was all downhill to get to the end of the trail and an awesome view.  We headed back, trying to make good time because it's only getting hotter as the minutes tick by.   There were many places for shade breaks for the first two miles back, and we stopped at one for a snack and 4 Mexican jays kept us company.  The final mile, also the steepest part, was pretty gr...
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Winter trip 2026 - Day 6: East to West

We were up early today, having decided that we needed to get a jump on a hike before the heat set in. There are hot springs on this side of the campground, and we found a trail headed that way.  This area had been settled by farmers who built pumps and irrigation ditches to grow crops. After all the rocks and dirt we saw yesterday, this was an unexpected change. I knew the river was there, just wasn't expecting to see ditches full of water and puddles around.  The first part of the hike was to the top of a hill/mountain, then the real goes back down the other side and follows the river to the springs. It was cool this morning, but as soon as we started up the trail it warmed up quick. At the top was a great overlook of the river.  We both were thinking it, and once we saw this sign at the top decided we would pass on a long hike.  I was already worried about how hot it would be on the way back, which meant climbing up and down this mountain all over again...
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Winter trip 2026 - Day 5: Desert

I woke up right at sunrise and had a beautiful view of the beginning of our day.  We decided to hike one of the more popular trails in the park, Lost Mine Trail. We were lucky to get the last open spot in the parking area, but since we had kind of a late start there were people on their way back down already.  During the hike we saw a mule deer and this cool Mexican Jay. The trail was 5 miles total, out and back, and about half the time was in the shade. Uphill the whole way, which meant we had some awesome views at the peak. At the top we met a lady who said she was hiking Big Bend for her 70th birthday, and her birthday wish was that everyone she met in the park will still be hiking when they are 70. I'm going to give it my best shot. We stopped for lunch on the way back down, found a perfect shady spot with an excellent breeze and ate shelf stable tamales, which are surprisingly good. After the hike we drove further into the C...
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Winter trip 2026 - Day 4: Made it!

We woke up early, both excited to get on the road since today was our first day at Big Bend.  Made a quick stop at the grocery store just down the road to stock up on a few final things. I'd rate H.E.B. 9/10 as far as grocery stores go.  We had about 5-6 hours of driving today, lots on the same road. Unfortunately, this road had lots of bridge construction so lots of temporary stop lights over areas that were one lane. The two lane parts were pretty rough - Joe says it was like chip and seal with #4 rocks. The last decent sized town before the park is Fort Stockton. We stopped to fill up our water jugs, last minute van maintenance, and another store for some backup sunscreen.  Texas had been pretty flat so far, but we were finally starting to see some hills as the landscaped changed.  Made one last fuel stop in Marathon.  There's fuel in the park, but it's going to be pricey. Stopped and paid our entrance fee, $30 for the week...
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