This Bend Is Very Big

From Big Bend National Park, TX

During this tumultuous time of the pandemic, we took the family on a RV journey across the USA, discovering national parks and historical sites. Our “roadschooling on workation” started in July of last year. Follow our blog here!

You can also follow our previous blogs on http://creatingourvision.blogspot.com and http://awomansquestfortruth.blogspot.com

Honoré de Balzac:

"The mission of art is not to copy nature, but to express it."

Sohela (9 years old):

We have started this blog because when we started this trip our RV was at 26,000 miles. Now we are at 36,000 miles. This means that on this trip we have traveled 10,000 miles and we want to be able to share this 10’000-mile-adventure (and more!) with you.

Today I am going to talk about our two days at Big Bend. To begin with, Big Bend is a National Park and part of it is Mexican territory. It is located in southern Texas on the border of Mexico, so it is in a hot and dry climate. There are many viewpoints to see amazing sites from and take beautiful pictures. You can also visit the 5 visitor centers and hike a lot of trails. We spent the night and relaxed at Cottonwood Campground. Although Big Bend is such a beautiful National Park, it sometimes has wildfires because of the climate. We actually are visiting Big Bend when there is a wild fire. The fire started on 4/8/21 and has not ended. Chisos Basin is closed off because the fire is still burning, but it will eventually stop. All the people at that campground were moved to the other two campgrounds, like the one we are staying at. 88 fire fighters are active and helicopters are needed in order to put out the fire. A lot of the canyons and viewpoints are named from Mexican names. Because the National Park is on the border we had to cross a border control to enter the park.

The second day at the National Park was very beautiful too. We saw 2 amazing canyons that are called Santa Elena Canyon and Boquillas Canyon. We also saw 2 rivers called Santa Elena River and Rio Grande. At Boquillas the Mexican people were selling pottery and bracelets. I got a mug and Ivania got a bracelet each made delicately by hand. Boquillas is technically part of Mexico; this is the first time I’m visiting Mexico. I loved going to Big Bend because it’s a beautiful and big, just like its name says.

Ivania (8 years old)

Art piece drawing entitled “Big Bend”

Claudio Lamsa (translated from French)

Sempiternal rock springing from the bowels of the earth,

Your child creatures look at you as a mother,

You carry within you, O unspeakable splendor, the fossilized footsteps,

Of former visitors curious about your regions,

And with open arms on eternal expanses,

You persist in embracing us with your unconditional beauty.

(Original French poem)

Roche sempiternelle jaillissant des entrailles de la terre,

Tes enfants créatures te regardent comme mère,

Tu portes en toi. ô splendeur indicible, les pas fossilisés,

Des anciens visiteurs curieux de connaître tes contrées,

Et à bras ouverts sur des étendues éternelles,

Tu persistes à nous embrasser de ta beauté inconditionnelle.