Big Bend National Park

Big Bend National Park is 1,252 square miles of mountains, deserts, and rivers in southeast Texas. It sits in a niche along the Mexico border where the Rio Grand sweeps around half of the park’s border. It is host to magnificent cliffs, breathtaking expanses, and vibrant wildlife.

But that is all lost on me.

My Appreciation Is Impaired

For the last year, I have been quite fortunate. I haven’t gotten terribly ill. But it appears that the tides have changed. My throat is sore, my nose is plugged, and I am so congested that it’s hard to process most anything.

So the grandeur of Big Bend National Park is rather lost on me. The vibrant desert, the towering mountains, the powerful river—all lost on me.

The spritely road runner?
Nope.
The brilliant striations of rock?
Nada.
The flowering agave plants?
Where is my tissue again?

Of course, all of this would only be half as bad if I hadn’t managed to introduce my driver to the pestilence as well. As it stands, the truck floor is littered with tissues.

It did not help that this was Presidents’ Day weekend. The park was stuffed with tourists enjoying a long weekend. What we had assumed would be a relatively relaxed weekend at a remote National Park was anything but. It is not as if there was any road congestion. But the nasal congestion was enough to confuse every park visitor that wandered into the frame of my camera as an offense directed at me.

At one point, the host of decongestants I was ingesting kicked in for a blessed reprieve at the same time as we bumped into a couple from Ontario with their own, homemade truck camper. It looked quite spacious.

Fossil Exhibit

Just this year, Big Bend opened a brand new fossil exhibit. Turns out, this was a pretty happening place a few million years ago. Fossils from excavations in the park are on display. It’s a pretty awesome little stop.