Big Bend National Park & Her Funky Sister Marfa

After an incredible night spent under the most beautiful starry sky we had ever seen, we woke up bright and early to see the sunrise over Big Bend National Park.

While I would like to say that we made it to the most scenic vista in the park by 6am, the reality is that we pulled over 15 minutes outside the park to watch the sunrise. The colorful sky crept above the mountains, giving us the perfect show in the middle of the desert. So, while we didn’t make it to the actual park before sunrise, I think we fared alright!

I did, however, keep mixing up sunrise and sunset all morning which meant that Phil had plenty of fodder to tease me about every time I proclaimed that the sunset was beautiful. You win some; you lose some.

With that, we ventured into the park, winding our way through the desert in search of the Rio Grande. From a mountaintop viewpoint at the top of the park, a path of lush, green trees stood out amongst the monochromatic dirt and sand. This gave us a pretty good indication of where we could find the water.

We traveled to the end of the park and hiked the nature trail off the Rio Grande Village Campground (where we intended to stay before the San Antonio tire-gate incident). On this trail, we made our way to the river: a turquoise, serene oasis in the middle of nowhere. We spent the rest of the morning hiking short pathways to see the blooming ocotillo plants & take in the desert mountain views.

Outside of Big Bend, we ended up passing through the town of Marfa, Texas. If you know anything about Marfa, then you know something about Marfa. In case you aren’t tired of me referring to every place in the Southwest as “the middle of nowhere”, then let me say: Marfa is, in fact, in the middle of nowhere. And yet, the town is a unique artist enclave with large art installations peppering the landscape.

If we had driven through at night, we would have taken the opportunity to attempt to see the Marfa Lights. Witnesses have reported seeing floating orbs across a desert field (is it still a field in the desert?) with little to no logical explanation for the reported sightings. Some say that the orbs are headlights from vehicles driving over two dozen miles away, but this only explains away some of the orbs sightings. Only the aliens will know…

Thirty minutes outside of Marfa (but really outside of the ghost town of Valentine) is one of its most famous art installations: the desert Prada store. Driving through the desolate desert landscape, you will suddenly pass a Prada store. This is, in fact, an art installation and not an actual store, but it does have plenty of Prada shoes & handbags that you can observe through the windows.

Who knew we would find both luxury handbags and extraterrestrial encounters in the middle of the desert!