Rio Grand Village

We headed towards the eastern portion of Big Bend this day, visiting Dugout wells, the Rio Grand Village area and Boquillas Canyon.

Given the hiking volume yesterday, today is going to be a lot lighter.

The Dugout wells area is an old settlement around a source of water.

Windmill for pumping water
Windmill for pumping water

Bicolor fanmustard
Bicolor fanmustard

There are three kinds of prickly pear cactus in the park. We saw all three at dugout wells.

Blind prickly pear
Blind prickly pear

Engelmann’s prickly pear
Engelmann’s prickly pear

Purple prickly pear
Purple prickly pear

Curved-bill thrasher
Curved-bill thrasher

We hiked the Hot Springs Historic trail next. This is a short trail to the historic hot springs right along the river.

Hiking along the Rio Grand
Hiking along the Rio Grand

Abandoned hot springs store
Abandoned hot springs store

Then we hiked the Rio Grand Village Nature trail which is also a short hike. This is the Rio Grand looking west. Mexico is on the left and the campground at Rio Grand Village is on the right.

Rio Grand
Rio Grand

Ocotillo
Ocotillo

Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron

Big Bend slider
Big Bend slider

We ate lunch at the park near the general store. Saw a roadrunner in the grass behind us.

Roadrunner
Roadrunner

Then we took a wrong turn to head towards Boquillas Canyon, but got rewarded with a bobcat sighting.

Bobcat
Bobcat

We went to Boquillas Canyon and did the short hike there.

Boquillas Canyon
Boquillas Canyon

Sweet acacia
Sweet acacia

Sweet acacia closeup
Sweet acacia closeup

We did a backcountry drive on the way back to Chisos basin.

Back country road
Back country road

Spiny hedgehog cactus
Spiny hedgehog cactus