Big Bend is not an easy place to get to as it’s tucked in the southwest corner of Texas. We were already deep in Texas on South Padre Island and it took us two days to get there. Big Bend is a combination of desert, mountain, and river vistas that cover more land than Rhode Island. Like many of the National Parks, it was established in the 1930’s and the “Feds” pushed ranchers, miners, and farmers off the land. Some remnants still remain… for example, one trail we hiked followed a pipe for a couple of miles that used to transport spring water to ranches in the area. Also, throughout the park there is evidence of Indian inhabitants as far back as 10,000 years ago.
We stayed in Terlingua, which is an interesting combination of old western ghost town, tourist trap, and junkyard. Being in a desert and all, there’s a premium on certain things like water. After driving through 6 hours of dust and misting rain, our car had dirt was caked on so deep you couldn’t see in the windows. Our campground manager-owner – I think she was chewing tobacco at the time – told us “this is the desert, you ain’t gonna be washing that”. Terlingua doesn’t have too much to offer but we did manage to have a pretty good dinner at the Starlight Theatre.
We hiked all five days we were there. We drove a lot miles to trail heads in areas that were quite varied and beautiful. Several of our destinations were down dirt roads and much of it required the all-wheel-drive of our CR-V. However, we could have seen a lot more if we had a real off-road vehicle as some of the most scenic sights can only be seen after driving down miles of “high-clearance-vehicle” roads.
Winter is the busy time in the park because the temperatures are safe. They actually close a good portion of the park in the summer because of the combo of incredible temperatures and high altitude. It is pretty much the opposite of what they do in Yellowstone NP where they close most of the park in the winter. Although the park campgrounds were full, there didn’t seem to be that many people around. Often we would find ourselves in isolation surrounded by desert and mountains, yet saw no sign of human life. The park shares 118 miles of the Rio Grande as a border with Mexico but we did saw very little of the Mexican people or buildings over the border.
One of the most interesting things we saw was the Rio Grande Hot Springs. This was at the end of a short hike down the Rio Grande. Also known as Boquillas Hot Springs, it’s what’s left of a resort that was built around the turn of the 20th century. Although we didn’t join in the spa experience, many (younger) others did – check out the picture below.
To sum up up: great park, a lot to see, over 200 miles of varied trails, and great weather in the winter. If you go, stay in the park if you can.
