We’re counting down the days….

That's our back story (Our story link.).  That's how we found Sanderson.  I don't think we mentioned any dates in the past blog posts, so I'll give you a sort timeline of events.  February 2018 the Ryza family stumbles into Sanderson on a wrong turn.  Mid-April we take another trip to Big Bend National Park and find Sanderson a nice place to stay.  Now 'our story' is comprised of two families...the Ryzas and the Godins.  On the same mid-April trip we find ourselves lodging in Sanderson again because of a campsite assignment snafu in the national park.  Our love of Big Bend Country seems to suddenly be overtaken by the fondness of this little town…

Our introduction to the Desert Air Motel…

Joe and I left for Sanderson before the dawn cracked.  It was the first Friday in May and less than 3 weeks after we had first stumbled across the Desert Air Motel.  This was to be our first official visit with the ole motel.  We quietly rolled into town around 11am and planned on circling the joint, scoping out the town, and getting a general better feel for the community….

An unplanned return to Sanderson…

On the last day of our Big Bend trip, we decided to take a relaxing dip in the Hot Springs before heading back to our campsite.  Everyone is pretty tired at this point of our trip, so we were looking forward to cooking some dinner on our camp stove and relaxing as the sun began setting.  Unfortunately (or fortunately in hindsight) when we got back to our campsite we had a surprise visitor. 

We return to Sanderson, intentionally this time…

Two months after our accidental stumbling into Sanderson we got the Big Bend itch again.  This time our friends joined us for the trip.  The usual form of travel to Big Bend these days has been to leave mid-day on day one and drive as far as Fort Stockton.  After one night in Fort Stockton, day two of the journey begins with us on the road before sunrise.  This allows us to see the beautiful sunrise colors against the West Texas mountains as we head south.  It also gets us to Panther Junction Ranger Station just before 9am to ensure we are assigned a good back country camping spot.  Once camp has been set up we still have half a day for hiking.

How a wrong turn led us to Sanderson, TX.

We love backcountry camping Big Bend National Park.  There is nothing quite like waking up to ocotillo, cenizo, cactus and the Chisos Basin in the background. After another fabulous family camping trip in the Chihuahua Desert (which included micheladas and enchiladas in Boquillas, Mexico, of course), we were headed home toward Austin on a Monday morning.  I took over driving at Marathon and proceeded to head north to Fort Stockton where Hwy 385 meets IH10 and we begin traveling east toward home.   Anyway, that's how we usually go, but I missed the turn to Fort Stockton.