After coming back into the US, we decided to go hike the Boquillas Canyon Trail that our guide had pointed out from the village. He gave us a little history of the towers to transport ore buckets in the area back when Boquillas, the village was a mining town in the 1960s.

We saw several displays of wares for purchase from Mexico, and even met a man who was selling tamales and empanadas from horseback. Tony had found something on the trail and picked it up. It was a personal safety alarm and it went off in his hands. He dropped it and the batteries fell out. He set it off to the side on some rocks. Maybe someone would hike with it to scare off wildlife. The tamale seller heard the alarm and was worried it might be some kind of camera. We assured him it wasn’t. It is illegal for them to enter the park here on the US side to sell these things, but the park service has more important things to attend to. We are told in the literature not to purchase from them and it might be confiscated if we do.

We still wanted to hike a bit more so before our showers, we walked to Daniel’s Ranch from the camp store parking lot to hike the Ernst Ridge Trail toward the hot springs. We hiked until we had at least three miles on our watches. The signs are correct—there is no shade at all on this trail. The two-dollar showers felt great!