Bill and Nancy Smith Family
Travels and Holidays

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Big Bend National Park - The Basin

The Basin is located west of the East Visitor's Center. Perhaps obviously, you drive up into the mountains, then, back down into The Basin, only to need to drive back up and out. A nice restaurant gift shop complement some motel units. It is also anothe of many jumping off points for wilderness campers. There were quite a number just leaving when we were there.

This is the most prominent rock formation from inside The Basin. Notice the trees were just changing colors in southern Texas. Here we are in the parking lot outside the restaurant. The Explorer sits to the left of this shot, as you see next.

Rocks and cliffs like these circle The Basin, giving it the name. As we got in and drove away, past the the motel units, what should we see but....

A small herd of javelinas stolling past... I took these shots out the window - I had been warned about javelinas while living in Arizona - often vicious, I was told. Annette jumped out (of course) and waited patiently for them to walk across the road to their "natural habitat" in the brush. Meanwhile, in the Explorer, we exchanged stories of the time she had to jump back in an open car window to escape a bear and another close encouter she had with a moose! She got her shots and safely returned to the vehicle...this time.

Following that excitement, we drove out of The Basin, back around the mountains, and southwest to the Rio Grande canyon.

Page created 17 Jan 2000, last updated 17 Jan 2000.
Direct questions and comments to Bill or Nancy.