Big Bend National Park

Our first road trip: 3 nights, 2000 miles.
Long, smooth, wide, with lots of police (constables, sheriffs, police, some troopers) roads with dead animals (deer, rabbits, birds, raccoons, pigs). It's cold at night, and it is hot in the afternoon. Suddenly delicious water in public  places in Fort Stockton.

It's 8 hours driving from our home to the park. We stayed in Fort Stockton, which is located in one hour from Big Bend Park main entrance. The park is so huge so one night it took us 3 hours to drive back to the hotel.
I chose the end of March as the blooming time of cactus. The plan has been made in advance with the list of the attractions, the sightseeing and the trails. But on the first day, the plan burned down with a scarlet flame after the first two-hours hike. All I knew about hiking from Norway was not actual here in Texas. The heat killed everything that was planned for the long weekend.

Chimneys Trail.
We put the thick layer of sunscreen, took about 4.5 liters of water and  set out on our journey.

Cactus in bloom. I thought it would be like a bright, boundless field of bluebonnet ...There are just two kind of cactus in this region.

The business card of this trail. True, all the photos that are sold in the park's office are made during sunset, from that they are of indescribable beauty. I got sun-burnt, non-surface surfaces. Anyway  it's  fine so far for me whereas the children began to melt, and the water began to end.

"I've been here!"

and we run back to the car...
 

The observation sites saved our tour of the park.

Tuff Canyon overlook 

 

Santa Elena Canyon Overlook
Kind of |Game of the Thrones wall.

It is not allowed to cross the river because it is Mexico on the other side.

Boquillas Canyon Overlook 

Hot Springs 

Pictograms of Indians.

Hot spring with 104F water. 

Window overlook 

The temperatures are too high for us so the kids did not leave the car preferring to make pictures from from the window of the vehicle.

Ocotillo. 

There are lot of animals after sunset on the roads.

Нигде на сайте парка не было указано, что надо с собой иметь паспорт: на контроле пограничник  (border service) хотел именно паспорт, а не наши водительские права. "В зоне 100 миль от границы надо всегда иметь с собой паспорт" объяснил он. У меня сложилось за эти несколько пересечений контроля впечатление, что останавливают на досмотр/ проверку только машины с номерами Техаса.