November 15, 2020
With the new visitor open and the swale construction at Bosque entrance completed, you can now walk to the Bosque from the visitor center parking lot. It does add about a mile to your walk each way. The Bosque, however is fantastic. It’s a remote part of the Bosque loaded with Cranes and Canada Geese.
We’ll have to see if there will be closer car access to the Bosque sometime in the future.
August 15, 2020
Access to the Bosque at Valle de Oro is now open. You now have to park at the entrance and walk into the Bosque. I need to find out if this is a permanent or temporary situation.
May 1, 2020
Access to the Bosque at Valle de Oro is still closed due to construction (see post below). It appears that there are several construction projects going on at the same time. It will be fun check out the new look Valle de Oro when they are done.
January 19, 2020
The dogs and I went out to Valle de Oro today and found that access to the Bosque has been temporarily closed for constructing a series of wetlands. You can still visit the Wildlife Refuge but cannot access the hike described in the book. Access to the Bosque will be reopened when the construction is complete. As mentioned in the book, Valle de Oro is a work in progress and parking for the Bosque, when it is reopened, will probably be in a different location. The Wildlife Refuge also has plans for a new visitor center, so a visit to the Refuge will only get better.
November 25, 2019
The State Land Commissioner has banned hunting from a tract of State Trust Land in the Bosque adjacent to Valle de Oro NWR. This is good news for those hiking in the Bosque. The route described in the 60 Hike book comes very close to the State Trust land (and may even cross it at some places). There are also houses nearby to further make the tract of State Trust land unsuitable for hunting.
Hunters did not start using the tract of State Land in question for hunting until the Wildlife Refuge and other agencies built a parking lot and a bridge over the ditches to provide access to the Bosque from the Refuge. The best solution is for the city or the county or other agency to lease the land on a long-term basis from the State to add to Rio Grande Valley State Park. In that way there will be no question about hiking and bird watching access to the Bosque from the Refuge and no question about the ban on hunting in the area.
Another update is that the Refuge is starting build a visitor center and re-configuring part of the refuge into wetlands. This may mean relocating the parking area where the book’s hike begins.