We woke up to a beautiful day in our dispersed camping location in Big Bend National Park:

Our first stop of the day was the nature trail at Dugout Wells:

There are three types of Prickly Pear Cactus in the park.  Here’s a Purple-Fringed Prickly Pear:

An Engelmann’s Prickly Pear:

A Blind Prickly Pear:

Dugout Wells is named for the natural seep here.  Settlers added a windmill-driven well pump to support their homestead.  The buildings are gone, but the windmill remains:

In the seep area, cottonwoods and other less drought-tolerant plants grow:

A date palm:

Our next stop was the Boquillas Canyon Trail:

The Rio Grande river is the border between the US and Mexico:

The row boat is in Mexico:

The two canoes in the river are an NPS park patrol:

Along the way, we spotted these holes in the rock, made by Native Americans grinding grains into flour:

As we walked along the trail, we saw a Mexican singing to us from across the river.  After completing a particularly off-key rendition of De Colores, he said “For you, amigo!”.  It was then we noticed a tip jar on the ground with a sign for “Jesus, the singing Mexican”.

In a similar vein, Mexicans sneak across the river and set up these “gift shops” along the trail.  We can see them watching us with binoculars.  When an item is purchased, they come across the river to collect the money:

Boquillas Canyon.  The far side of the river is Mexico:

Our next stop was the nature trail at the Rio Grande Village campground:

Looking across the Rio Grande, we could see the Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen:

Next we checked out the Langford Ruins, named for the Langford family which lived here and operated a store in the first half of the 20th century:

The abandoned Langford store:

The inside of the store has several wall murals:

We left the Langford ruins and drove for about an hour on rocky roads to arrive at the ruins of the Mariscal Mine, which produced a quarter of the mercury produced in the US from 1900 to 1943.  You can tell you’re in Texas because the NPS merely warns of hazards rather than shutting down access:

Mexican miners built their own houses here.  Fragments of these buildings remain:

Old mining implement:

Photo by M:

We didn’t touch anything here, as most everything, especially the oven bricks, are saturated with mercury:

The mine site:

Going higher up through the complex, we found one of many mine shafts:

More mine shafts:

M has become very interested in photography over the last few days:

As the sun set, we drove back towards the RV, trying to get away from the border before dark:

Photo by M:

We got back after dark and enjoyed the most amazing night sky.  Big Bend has the darkest skies in the continental US.

Happy third day of Chanukah!

See the trip map for today’s drive.