Still in the back country

We've moved from Chisos Basin to the Rio Grande Village campsite.  Much nicer.  Still no showers!  Holy cow-dusty and hot.  We asked at the visitors centre about the condition of the road to the hot springs.  We heard that a dually pick-up truck had one of its wheels go over the edge of the road.  That was true.  The ranger confirmed it.  He said the road wasn't suitable for anything but a car.  It is too narrow, no guardrail.  Just rock face and cliff drop off.  Well, that was GAME ON on for Al.  This is the kind of challenge he can't resist.  We drove our van (not a car)

1.9 miles down a narrow, sketchy, winding, washboard, stoney, washed out, dusty road.  Then had to park the van in a dusty parking lot.  The day temperature was 89 degrees. We hiked 1/2 mile down a hot, dusty trail. The trail followed the side of the mountain-very narrow and close to a 40 ft high rock wall.  Al said to me, "Watch out for falling rocks."  Mid sentence, a rock fell on to the path right in front of us.  We got to the hot springs.  We saw a man lounging in a water hole.  If he wasn't there we would have walked right past it.  The hot springs haven't been turned into anything touristy yet.  We were hot and dusty so we went right in.  The temperature was 105 degrees in the water.  It made the air feel cool.  Al jumped into the Rio Grande.  That water was cooler.  He didn't swim over to Mexico, although he was certainly close enough.  It was under 30 feet to Mexico.  He later regretted that he didn't do it.  Then we trudged the 1/2 mile back to the van except this time we were wet, hot and dusty.  Picture dust clinging to wet and hot.  This creates a whole new type of hair mousse. 

Back at the campsite, we had fried chicken cooked on a charcoal bbq, in a cast iron chicken fryer. Yum.  We took Sid for a bike ride.  He was hot and luckily, we found a boat launch ramp so he was able to use it to swim in the Rio Grande. Throughout the night we could hear coyotes howling.  They sound like a group of university students partying.  The next morning, we were walking back from a hike and we saw a coyote wander away from our campsite.  Good thing we had Sid in the van (dogs aren't allowed on the trails-likely because wild animals will attack them).  Coyotes have attacked dogs at this park as recently as last week. 
Ah, the toilets.  We can't call these stations washrooms because there are no wash facilities-no showers.  We were so disgustingly dusty we had to use the compact shower in the van to get clean.