Day 15--Arriving at Seminole Canyon State Park

Seminole Canyon is amazing and we haven’t even seen the pictographs yet. Our drive today was pretty long and mostly unremarkable. We stopped along the way for a picnic by a dry creek bed. The sun was out, it was breezy and the temperature was in the mid-60s, so it was a bit cool in the shade. We passed within 3 miles of the Mexico border at Del Rio and so, west of there, we went through our first Border Patrol inspection. They had the dog sniffing out the truck in front of us pretty carefully before it drove on, but they just asked where we were going and if we were both U.S. citizens and we were on our way. The vegetation became increasingly sparse, with more yucca, Spanish dagger and prickly pear cactus. We were setting up at the canyon by about 4:00 and loved what we were seeing. The Ranger chuckled when I asked about safety, sighting the warnings we had gotten. He said they hear that all the time but they are so remote it is really no problem. The camp ground is on a plateau about half a mile from the visitor center, which overlooks the canyon. There are only 31 sites and we are on the outside of the second loop, overlooking miles and miles of desert high country. It was oppressively windy and we were warned not to put up our awning. It was sunny and still mid-60s so we sat and enjoyed the view for a while. Then we hiked along the Rio Grande Trail for about 3 miles or so. We didn’t take it all the way to the River because that would be about 7 miles and we wanted to be back for the sunset. And it was magnificent, with just a few clouds above the mountains in the far distance, so the sun set into the clouds, peeked out again and then set behind the mountains. Afterwards we enjoyed leftover chili and were grateful for the warmth of the camper as the temperature dropped into the 40s. We have electricity here but no phone service, TV reception or even much radio. But, incredibly, we have Wi-Fi and so we can check email and update the blog from here in the wilderness! That’s all the good news. Now, for the bad: This big wind is bringing in a cold front. The temps could drop to freezing for a few days. We can do OK with that, but it may bring rain, sleet and/or snow, too. One can only see the canyon petroglyphs with a guide and they only do the tours Wed. through Sat. at 10:00 and 3:00. They will not do them if there is wetness because the rocks become too slippery. So we will stay here for two nights, close up the camper and hope that we can do a tour at 10:00 Wednesday before we leave the park. Keeping our fingers crossed!!