Here's how our day went on Friday...

Three of the group left Isla de la Piedra at 6:00am. A few of us were even up to wave goodbye. They wanted to get an early start and a long days drive in to head towards the Arizona border on Sunday and get back to Canada for various reasons. Next, at 7:00am, seven more rigs pulled out, again heading towards Arizona, but this group won't cross until Monday.

Then at 8:00am, it was our turn. Us, with James and Karen behind us, and Kenny and Gail bringing up the rear. We are down to a three rig caravan!

But we were taking a different route, heading towards Laredo, Texas.

Our destination for the day was Sierra de Organos National Park, a distance of 375 kms (232 miles).

Ruth and I have done the drive from Mazatlan to Durango twice before, but both times it was on the free road that goes to the Espina del Diablo... the Devils Backbone. But it's a long curvy one day drive to get to Durango on the free road, and we wanted to go to the National Park so we took the toll highway to make better time.

Heading towards the mountains.

The highway goes from sea level to 8,500 feet in elevation. Uphill all the way! But it's an amazing series of bridges and tunnels, and is one of the most spectacular highways in the country. Part of it has been closed for the last two months or so because an accident on one of the bridges damaged the road surface. It was only re-opened a couple of days ago, so our timing was very fortunate. It's also a very expensive highway. The tolls for a motorhome are just over 1,000 pesos ($72 CAD, $56 USD).

Lots of tunnels.

And lots of bridges!

The tunnel zone goes for 48 kms (29 miles).

Lots of beautiful views!

Near where the bridge repairs are happening.

They have these fake flagmen (and women) with electric motor flags!

Scenery along the way.

On the damaged bridge.

Looking back at the damaged bridge.

Next up, the famous Baluarte Bridge.

We were supposed to meet our friends Chris and Juan at the park. They have been here before and had said it was a great place. But their truck broke down on Wednesday on the way here and they had to return home. Too bad, we had been looking forward to seeing them.

Chris had said that this park was fine for Class A motorhomes, but we were led by one of the park workers to an area that was actually pretty tight, with some low hanging tree branches. Not a lot of room to navigate a 32' motorhome, and there were three of us. But, we managed to get ourselves parked up and we're fine for two nights. There are quite a few Mexicans tent camping here. I doubt they often see a motorhome camped up here at 7,600 feet! Cost is 40 pesos per person, so 80 pesos ($5.75 CAD, $4.50 USD) per rig per night.

Ruth, at our happy hour spot.

We didn't get out to do any exploring because it was about 4:15pm when we arrived. We had gone through a one hour time change, so we lost an hour there. We were given a park map when we entered, and we are happy to see they've got quite a few hiking trails so we are looking forward to getting in some exercise. The scenery looks amazing here!

It was a full moon last night, and it was so bright! I took a few photos. They are a little grainy, but considering I only had the light of the moon and they are handheld shots, they're not bad!

Kenny and Gail's rig in the moonlight.

What a beautiful night.

Today, (Saturday) we are going for a nice long hike and we'll get some scenic shots from this magnificent Mexican National Park. This park was on Ruth's list of the things we still want to see in Mexico, so it's great to be able to cross another item off the list.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is kinda neat...

Cool Kids Room Bunkbeds

And in Canada...

Shark IONFlex DuoClean Cordless Ultra-Light Vacuum