The Road To Presidio

2/27/2008 The Road to Presidio
One of the ways to get out of Terlingua is to go east to Presidio, through Big Bend Ranch State Park. After hearing that is was considered a scenic drive we decided to take a day and explore it. I am sure glad we did as it’s no place to take our house!
The road is good condition and is wide ,but the grade is 15% through the canyon Both up and down. A drive not for the acrophobic to say the least. It parallels the Rio Grande for most of the way and the image above is of The Rio Grande. Not an imposing barrier,(Because of the water use the river is one sixth of its old flow).
The park is actually a working ranch which holds yearly roundups of longhorns and lets greenhorns dude at the ranch, for a hefty price! Not our cup of tea. We did discuss volunteering with a volunteer at the welcome desk. The volunteers work 15 hours a week for their full hook up spots,(so a couple works 30 hours). Behind the visitor center is an extensive cactus garden. The river in the park is also floated by many! More possible adventures for future visits.
One stop along the way was especially noteworthy, the closed canyon! It is a slot canyon that is so narrow you can almost touch the walls and ends in two pour offs before you reach the Rio Grande. The floor is polished clean fro flash floods and is littered with rocks that fell from above. I found it a very scary place, not from the claustrophobia
But I was worried about flash floods and rock fall.
Presidio is a border crossing and we drove to the crossing but didn’t cross as we forgot our passports, duh.
There is an rv park, supermarket, and place for diesel as the town has a population of about 4000.
I was able to connect with the internet and check out our bank statement but it was too slow for email and most stuff. Renita drove back and she stopped so I could take pictures of the canyons and some pretty hudos,(sp), which are balancing rocks. Another exciting day! Clear skies