Rio road trip

This photo was taken down by the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park. We went there back in January (Big Bend was also the source of the star trails photograph). While there we stayed at the Chisos Basin campgrounds, which is basically in the middle of the park. But, one night after a very, very long day of hiking we decided to road trip to the other side of the park. And when I say road trip I mean it. The park is huge, from the middle where we camped to the Rio Grande side is about 20 miles. So, why did we drive 20 miles after a long day of hiking? Well, we were searching for the famous hot springs.

We finally found the springs; they are basically a large natural tub just on the edge of the Rio Grande. So, we sat there for 45 minutes soaking in warm spring water as the frigid river water flowed by right next to us. Now, remember this was January and it gets very cold at night in Big Bend, so this was a real treat. But, the sun started to go down and we needed to head out. As we were leaving we looked back towards the springs and this was our view (the river is to the right of the photo). The sun going down made for amazing colors in the landscape, particularly on the mountains behind. I quickly got my camera out of the car, and I remembering standing on a boulder on my tips toes trying to get the composition right before all the colors faded away with the sun. I think that little building was an old spa house, it's abandoned now though.

Needless to say, it was an extremely relaxing evening, with beautiful scenary for entertainment. Thank God for our National Parks.