Day 5: The day Kathy will claim Chris tried to kill her.

We finally reached our destination this morning when we entered Big Bend National Park. (Pictures on Flickr.)

We saw a family of javelinas, collared peccaries, crossing the road even before we reached the visitor center to pay. We have also seen numerous roadrunners, but no Wil E Coyotes.

We spent the day driving from the north gate to the Rio Grande at Santa Elena Canyon.

The scenery is a typical Western landscape: dry desert sliced with dry arroyos and sprouting with rocky mesas and ridges with talis skirts. The desert is full of color. Prickly pears, for example, can appear light green or purple. The purple appears in drought conditions.

As you approach the Rio Grande you see a cliff. Finally, when you are about a mile away you realize how big this cliff is. It's like a wall, almost perfectly vertical. And big, really, really big and it goes a long way east and west. It is amazing. In the middle of this wall is a narrow opening called the Santa Elena Canyon. The Rio Grande flows through this canyon. So Texas owns one half the cliff wall and Mexico owns the other half of the cliff wall.

Kathy and I walked down the canyon. This requires walking up several ramps and flights of steps to an elevation of about 100 feet, then walking about a mile. Chris kept asking Kathy if she wanted to turn back. She kept saying no. So when Kathy says I tried to kill her, I want you to remember that she knowingly took a full dose of this poison.

The canyon is very narrow, but the straight walls go up and up. It is amazing.

The Rio Grande passes through three canyons in Big Bend park. Chris wanted to raft through the canyons, but, according to the rangers in the visitor's center, the water is too low for good rafting. June and July are better. Oh well.

In the old days, US citizens could visit Mexican towns on the other side of the river. Now we can't and US citizens trying to get back in the US are fined $5,000.

Tonight we are bedding down at a campsite at Terlinqua west of the park. Before settling down, we drove to Terlinqua, the ghost town about 5 miles further West.

When we arrived we took a dirt road on the east side of town that went up on the desert floor and down into the dry arroyos. Up and down, up and down for at least half a mile on dirt roads.

We finally got to the West side of town where the remains of the old town stood. The place was jumpin' with a reunion of the descendants of mercury miners. The original town was started by a man named Howard Perry as a mercury mine, Chisos Mining Company. Several of the old buildings have been renovated for new uses. So, despite the name, "ghost town" the place is still active, possibly even thriving.

Kathy and Chris returned to the new Terlinqua to eat in a Mexican restaurant called The Roadrunners. The salsa for the chips was actually spicy hot. The gaucamole was good too.

Tomorrow we will return to Big Bend for another visit, then off toward San Antonio. On the way we will pass by Langtry where Judge Roy Bean held court.