rio grande, pine canyon, balanced rock – day 2
I think I say “better late than never” too much in my life. It’s a bad indicator.
Day 2 of our Big Bend National Park trip (click here for Day 1) started with a pretty drive to the Rio Grande Village.
At the visitor center near Rio Grande, they had a little area where they had samplings of all the different plant life in the park. I thought these cacti were really cute!
We brought our bikes on the trip and the husband had read about the different areas in the park that were best for biking.
So we decided to bike 4 miles from the Rio Grande Village to the Boquillas Canyon Overlook. 4 miles? Easy, right? Well, not if you consider all the hills! It was pretty easy for the husband but I had to walk my bike up most of the hills.
Even though it was difficult and blazing hot, it was an incredible experience. It’s just a crazy feeling to be biking in such a harsh environment. The sheer size of the spread of the land around you and your little bike on your little road — it was just unreal. It really felt like I was dreaming. I was so tired by the time we arrived at Boquillas Canyon Overlook that I waited in the shade until the husband biked back to the visitor center to bring the car.
While I was waiting in the shade I took these photos:
When the husband came back with the car, we hiked up the short but hot Boquillas Canyon Trail.
Yep, that’s the Rio Grande.
Can you see our 4Runner in the parking lot with the bikes on our roof rack?
Then we went off-roading on Glenn Spring Road in our 4Runner to get to Pine Canyon Trail.
Pine Canyon Trail is easy and boring for several miles and you start to wonder why it’s called Pine Canyon because it’s pretty flat and tree-less. And then when you least expect it, it becomes this:
Crazy, right? We sat right there on the rocks and had a delicious beef jerky break.
Then we went offroading on Grapevine Hills Road to get to the Grapevine Hills Trail and the famous Balanced Rock. I was pretty tired at this point and was skeptical about the hype surrounding the Balanced Rock. Boy, am I glad we didn’t skip it!
Again, weird landscape change.
It’s really easy to lose the trail here because it’s pretty sandy.
We didn’t see a single other person while we were here, the quiet and the strange landscape made the hike feel a bit eerie.
The sun was starting to set and it cast a soft and pretty glow on the rocks.
The Balanced Rock! It’s not really that spectacular until you get up close to it.
Amazing view, ain’t it?
When we hiked back to our car the sun almost all the way down. It was peaceful and beautiful out there. If I were to camp in a tent, I’d probably camp somewhere along this road.
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