Boca China near Brownsville, Texas

March 8, 2018

Boca Chica is part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.  We drove on Boca Chica Boulevard about 11 miles east of Brownsville, by the Palmito Ranch area, through the village of Boca Chica which will be home to a SpaceX launch facility, and then into an undeveloped area.

These 30-feet S-band tracking station antennas were moved from Merritt Island where they were used to track space shuttles.

This will be the first SpaceX site not leased from the U.S. government.  SpaceX will invest over $100,000 in the facility which will be used to launch private spacecraft including the Falcon 9 and, according to Elon Musk, perhaps spacecraft to Mars.  Development has been delayed due to soil stabilization issues; no launches are expected before 2019.

From Boca Chica Boulevard to where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico is a lovely three-mile drive.  We were grateful for the Jeep that allowed us to drive on the sand.

The Rio Grande is in the center; the land to the left is Mexico. There is no wall here, but there was an immigration checkpoint on Boca China Blvd.

We think these may be shelters for vendors in Mexico.

Lighthouse in Mexico

LOTS of trash washes up onto the beach.

The beach made for great bird watching.  Unfortunately, we haven’t learned to identify the gulls.

Note the oil rig on the horizon.

Pelicans

Osprey

Interesting things had washed up on the beach.

Barnacles on a bottle

Man of war

On the drive back, we enjoyed seeing yucca and wildflowers.

Gaillardia