Welcome to Big Bend National Park! Have you figured out how it got its name yet? It comes from the big bend in the Rio Grande. Makes sense, right? We took an afternoon drive into the park going to Panther Junction Visitors Center in the middle of the eastern part of the park, about 30 minutes away.
E.E. Townsend, the “father of the Big Bend National Park” is the one we should give thanks to for this magnificent park. While he had already passed away before its grand opening in the 1950s (delayed by WWII and the Korean War), his love and knowledge of this area from being a Texas Ranger, a U.S. Customs mounted inspector, and a hunter and camper in the area, convinced Washington that Big Bend needed to belong to the nation.
As we drove through the park to the ranger station, we were in awe of the landscape that changed every few minutes. This set of mountains and valleys are independent from any other mountain range. Volcanic activity created this area.
The ranger station (which had great WiFi!) had two main exhibits that we enjoyed: how the land and animals have adapted to the desert, and what the land looked like and how it changed millions of years ago.
the present: adapt!
the past: an inland sea? dinosaurs?
But birds, direct descendants of dinosaurs, survived and flourished. Whatever happened, it set the stage for mammals to flourish,
for which we’re thankful.
We’ll be taking some hikes later on this week.
