Amistad means “Friendship” in Spanish, which speaks volume of this park, located on the boarder of Texas & Mexico. The completion of the Amistad Dam in 1968, a joint venture between the US & Mexico, created a reservoir for flood protection, water storage, power generation, and recreational activities such water sports, fishing, and canoeing. There are two bronze eagles at the dam’s center symbolizing the cooperation and friendship in building and managing this dam. In addition to water activities, there is rock art and scenic views to discover.
Where We Stayed
We camped at San Pedro Campground at Amistad NRA. The campground is a primitive site, meaning we boon docked there. For $4/night, it was fine. The only complaint we have is how HOT it was. Without being plugged in, we didn’t have A/C. We had one fan, and it wasn’t enough. We ended up spending most of the day traveling around in the car, and by the time we got back to camp it had cooled off slightly. If we were to camp here again, we may consider having a generator to cool us off.
What We Did
We were here for one day, and with no trails to hike, we stuck to doing scenic driving. We like looking for birds and other animals as well as great views. We first drove to Governor’s Landing which had fantastic views of the I90 bridge. We also scoped out the campsite nearby, and determined there was no way our trailer could’ve fit. After that we drove further to Mexico’s border and onto Southwinds Marina. The marina had great views. Our next scenic driving spot was the 277 South and 277 North viewpoints. It was in the North area that we spotted quite a bit of bird activities. We believe we saw American Coot, but couldn’t be sure as they were traveling away from us. In a great distance we saw a Great Blue Heron. While driving Steve also saw a Tarantula, eeek! Our last viewpoint for the day was Rough Canyon. This area was further North than our camp spot and looked much different. It was filled with rental homes and hotels. The viewpoint gave us a impressive view of a cliff, but nothing too amazing. There were a lot of people so we didn’t expect to see much wild life, but in fact we saw white-tailed deer. The group of doe was so cute but after Sparky mean mugged them, they ran off.
Our day there was short, but as there wasn’t much for us to do because 1) we didn’t have a boat and 2) the hikes to the art rocks wouldn’t allow Sparky, we did as much scenic driving as we could. We ended up seeing more wildlife than we had anticipated and enjoyed the drive.
What’s Next
El Paso, Texas
