Texas Archives • Into the Light Adventures

Seminole Canyon Big Bend Country

By Sandra | June 3, 2022

Seminole Canyon Big Bend Country About ten miles northwest of Comstock is Seminole Canyon State Park. Sitting on more than 2,000 acres, the historic site displays jagged canyons cut through the Chihuahuan Desert, where the Pecos River flows into the Rio Grande.

Seminole Canyon Campground Video here; Seminole Campground

We were here back at the end of February; we had made reservations to Big Bend National Park for the first of March. So, we camped here for a week as we continued our journey into Texas

The extreme dry climate has set in here in southern Texas, very low humidity and 90 degrees F for this part of our trip. This is the dry heat people are always talking about in the south, as long as there is a breeze, I did not mind it.

This is our first-time camping with no electrical hookups. We had to rely on a portable solar panel that we have to keep the batteries charged. We overestimated how much power we use after a couple of days. We woke up one morning and the refrigerator light was blinking, the batteries were dead.

So, we made sure everything was un plugged the next night, like the DVD player, that blinks a red light all night long, We learned to stop using battery power by midafternoon so that the batteries had enough juice in them to keep the food cold at night. It was a learning curve, but we figured it out right away.

There is a lot of history in this rugged part of the world, where people who lived here back in the day, lived in the carved-out caves along the canyon walls. There is a big difference in our house on wheels and the home below in the canyon wall.

But, amazing how we figure out how to use what is provided to us in nature/creation. The sun is a very powerful tool that provides energy, warmth and the ability for everything to grow.

Below is a photo of the Pecos River, we had not even heard of this river until we went out for a drive and came across this beautiful canyon just a few miles west of Seminole canyon.

Driving up U.S. Highway 90 from Del Rio, who would imagine the sight of the Pecos River and the Pecos High Bridge appearing suddenly in view? Soaring 322 feet above the water, the High Bridge is the tallest railroad bridge in Texas.

It flows into the Rio Grande River, to view the Rio Grande from Seminole canyon park, it is a short 7-mile hike or bike ride across the rocky terrain to the north canyon rim. These photos are being shared because husband rode his bike down there to take a photo for you and for me. 🙂

I like to ride my bike-on-bike paths, payment sort of terrain. He loves to go off roading with his. 7 miles was a bit to far for me, I did go about 2 miles on the path, it was so bumpy and lots of rocks. So, I went back.

The Rio Grande water is very low, like a lot of places all along Texas. I will be showing more of these photos of the river as we make our way west.

Seminole Canyon Big Bend Country

Sandra J

Inks Lake State Park Texas

By Sandra | May 9, 2022

Inks Lake State Park Texas, after our stay at the last park I found this state park that was only an hours drive away. We really like not driving more than a couple of hours between parks when possible and we are only staying at this park for 2 nights.

The Colorado river runs through this area and it is the largest river within the state of Texas. It travels 862 miles, almost 600 billion gallons of water flow in a typical year.

Back in the day the river was as much a danger as a blessing for the residents around this area. So they decided to build a dam, a series of six dams to try and control the Colorado river and Inks Lake Dam was the second one built in the series.

In 1940 the state acquired about 1200 acres to make this park here. It has colorful rocks all around the lake, lots of hiking and really good fishing they say.

I love to learn the history of all these places we are visiting. It isn’t about just camping, I find this trip we are on is a walk down the real history of this country. How did all of these places come about? We have been finding a lot of these parks have great museums near by as well and we try to stop at all of them.

So much better than reading it in a book, to get out there and see how everything has changed over the years is quite remarkable to me.

Inks Lake State Park Texas

by Sandra J

From the Land of Texas

By Sandra | April 29, 2022

From the Land of Texas, I am back to posting our journey from the state of Texas during February and March. Lots of new birds yet to come and landscapes of places I have never been to before.

Texas is a very big state and our first stop is Davy Crockett National Forest in Eastern Texas. It is nice to see pine trees again after the long stay along the gulf coast. During our stay here in February the day time temperatures are not to bad, but it did get down below freezing a few times at night.

This map below shows the journey we took across the state of Texas. From Al to Western Texas we traveled 3210 miles. We were in Texas for 2 months during February and March. Our initial plan was to slowly drop down to Big Bend National park, Texas is a long state, so each red dot is a park we stayed at along the way.

I have to say Texas has some beautiful parks and if you get the America the Beautiful National park pass, it gives you 50% off all national parks and Core of Engineer parks. So this park we are at today only cost 10 dollars a night and that includes electricity and water.