Big Bend National Park – West

Our time in the Western part of Big Bend National Park was spent camping at the Cottonwood Campground. It is a no-frills campground, but the only established campground nearby the Saint Elena Canyon which was our destination (twice over) for the weekend.

On our second morning we were visited by the locals in the area. I’ve seen Javelina on TV and hear them from time to time in the desert, but I had never seen one up close and personal. A family of six or so slowly strolled through the campground, nibbling on the grass. I pulled out the big DSLR and zoom to get some photos of the cute ones. Surely Moose would have loved to have gone out and played with the group, but I doubt they would have liked it… Moose being so pushy and all.

The only problem was that they spent much of their time just 20 feet outside our door, and we could not exit the Airstream to start our adventures. Once the Javelina family moved on we drove up the Old Maverick Road (dirt), following the Terlingua Creek, north to the western entrance to the park and pass by some back country camping areas as well as a few historic locations.