Along the Rio Grande

Two stops along the Mexican border…

…with a few Border Control Checkpoints and wide fluctuations in temperatures. First stop, Laredo, where it was ~90, the day we arrived, but didn’t break 50 the 2 days we were there. Next stop, Del Rio, where it started warming up and even broke 80 yesterday. Both towns have more than one international bridge into Mexico. We heard on the news that the wait times to enter the US are up to 6 hours. The Mexican President is doing her job! Extensive searches of vehicles for drugs and other contraband. Note, they search you on the way in, too. Leave those firearms in the US, where they belong!

It was a relaxing & chore filled week (Costco in Pharr, 120K Oil Change for The Beast in Del Rio, prepping for 6 nights dry camping/limited groceries in Big Bend, starting later today!) But we did get in a bit of exploring:

Camped in a Texas State Park:

• Lake Casa Blanca International State Park, which is actually in Laredo! We camped right on the lake and mostly just hung out there. (The only other time we camped at a State Park in a city, was Jackson, Mississippi, coincidentally, also on a lake.) We did a little hiking in the park and saw some javelina, just munching on the side of the road.

Visit to 1 new National Park Site:

• Amistad National Recreation Area (#280), an oasis in the desert, it consists of the US portion of the International Amistad Reservoir, between the US & Mexico, formed by the Amistad Dam on the Rio Grande. We didn’t visit the dam, due to time constraints, but we did get a postcard–>
  
  The park boundary extends 74 miles up the Rio Grande, 25 miles up Devils River, and 14 miles up Pecos River. Amistad, whose name comes from the Spanish word meaning friendship, is best known for excellent water-based recreation, camping, hiking, rock art viewing (which we did at Seminole Canyon SP), and its rich cultural history. We didn’t recreate a lot, but did spend some time in the Visitor Center and visited a few spots along the shore of the reservoir. As of February 23, 2025, the Amistad Reservoir was only 26.2% full. 

Visit to a Texas State Park adjacent to Amistad

• Seminole Canyon State Park & Historic Site, along the Rio Grande near Del Rio, kind of on the western end of Amistad NRA. Early canyon dwellers left clues to their lives on the stone walls of Seminole Canyon. We got on a guided walk to some of the 4,000+ year old pictographs there, some of the best we’ve seen. Then, after spending quite a bit of time in their museum, we did a 7+ mile hike, largely along the canyon rim. We got to a viewpoint overlooking Panther Cave Pictographs across the river in Amistad NRA, only accessible by boat.

Off for Big Bend!

So, for the next week, we’ll have no cell service and limited access to the internet! Supposed to be hot-ish this week in Big Bend. That’s good, given we are dry camping. It drains the battery to run the fan on the furnace! We got fuel for the generator, but hoping we’ll keep our battery charged with solar, as there is no shade at our campsite.

For more pictures, see (in-work) Adventure Album: Across South Texas

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