Why one Minnesotan loves Texas' Big Bend National Park

"Only those who wander find new paths" is an old Norwegian expression.

My husband, Bob, and I have wandered a lot, camping across the United States and Canada in our VW Eurovan camper. Now in our late 70s, we have a new-to-us little Chinook RV, which we took to Big Bend National Park in Texas. I honestly did not think any trip could be as special as ours to Alaska or Nova Scotia. Yet, our trip this past February to Big Bend is and was.

We spent 14 days camping in the ruggedly beautiful Chisos Mountains in the Chisos Basin Campground of Big Bend. Our RV was small enough for the challenging drive up into the mountains then down into that campsite, at 5,400 feet (RVs more than 24 feet are not recommended due to the narrow, winding road to the Basin and small campsites. There is no length limit for the park's other two campgrounds. Reservations are highly encouraged for all three, with a maximum stay of 14 days.)

Every day we could choose a different, spectacular, challenging hike. From the east side at Rio Grande Village, to the western edge at Santa Elena Canyon, there was the Rio Grande, the desert and the mountains for us to explore.

There was also much history to be learned — of the Native Americans who populated the area for thousands of years; the arrival of the Spanish, then the Anglos; the homesteaders who survived into the '30s, their land now a part of the park; and the native Mexicans on the other side of the Rio Grande. The mercury miners at Terlingua, a ghost town just outside of the park, made us realize the harshness of survival. National Park Ranger talks were worthwhile.

We saw many roadrunners, and smelled the javelinas, never seeing one of the piglike animals, or a bear or a cougar. We also did not take advantage of river rafting or backcountry hiking.

Our favorite spots in the park include the Boquilla Canyon Trail, with Jesus serenading us from the Mexican side of the river; the Santa Elena Canyon, along the Rio Grande between walls of the canyons; a hike of 3 miles to the historic hot springs (make it a sauna-like experience by sliding over the wall into the cooler Rio Grande); and the sunsets in the Window, a view framed by canyon walls, from our campsite.

There are many, many national monuments and other parks that make the distances to and from Big Bend enjoyable: Fort Davis National Historic Site, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the McDonald Observatory, the Overland Trail Museum, the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens; the White Sands National Monument, and the White Sands Missile Range Museum, to name a few. We took in as many as we could when we left, on our way to the Cactus League Spring Training in Arizona.

As we wander, we do our best not to travel on interstate highways unless necessary. The back roads truly introduce us to vanishing Americana. We frequent small-town businesses as we can. In West Texas, there are few large towns. Be prepared.