Big Bend National Park

The next day we retraced our steps back along Hwy 90 to Marathon for a look around the Gage Hotel. Designed by Trost & Trost it opened in 1927, it was restored after years of neglect to its present immaculate condition and furnished with authentic period décor. The cabana-style adobe suites have antique wooden doors, Mexican tile floors, fireplaces and outdoor patios facing a lush courtyard. The staff are really friendly and we wandered around the wood panelled dinning room and cosy TV room furnished with huge leather armchairs and Mexican rugs. Once on the road again we turned south on Hwy 385 following the Maravillas river valley through the mountains to the Big Bend National Park and the “Rio Grand Wild & Scenic River”.

Named for the great curve in the Rio Grand, it is one of the largest and least visited of America’s National Parks, over 800,000 acres ranging from 2,000 feet along the Rio Grand to nearly 8,000 feet in the Chisos Mountains. We drove down to Panther Junction and then turned west towards our campground in Terlingua.

We stopped at one of the information plaques to watch a thunderstorm moving across our intended path. It was difficult to tell if it was over Terlingua so we moved on hoping it would be gone by the time we arrived, unfortunately we were just a few minutes too early and had to sit in the RV at the campground while the rain teemed down around us. Once it stopped the sun soon started drying up the puddles.

The next day we unloaded the motorbike and headed off west to the Barton Warnock Environmental Education Centre, it houses an interpretive centre describing the geology of the area and it’s affects on the environment of the Chihuahuan Desert, and a 2.5 acre desert garden with a scenic overlook. Then we carried on into Lajitas located at the San Carlos ford of the Rio Grand, first documented by 16^th century Spanish explorers as a border trading post. We ventured into the boardwalk in search of shade and a cold one and discovered an oasis that served ice cold Shiner Bock in tall glasses, amazing.

The forecast was better the following day so we decided to do the long run right across the park to Rio Grand Village. Just around the corner from the campground a roadrunner darted across the road in front of us and then we travelled 50 miles through the heart of the park, past the Chisos Mountains and down to the Rio Grand River. We stopped at Daniels Ranch for lunch, a derelict farmhouse where two visitors joined us, Turkey Vultures; unfortunately the park regulations prevented us from offering them refreshments. Afterwards we walked the nature trail across a boardwalk and up to a bluff overlooking the Rio Grand and the distant mountains in Mexico.

On the return trip we stopped to take some photos of the prickly pear cactus that were in flower all over the park following the recent rain.

The following day we headed the other way through the Big Bend Ranch State Park, another 300,000 acres flanking the “River Road” FM 170 from Lajitas to Presidio. We stopped at the Tee Pee Rest area to watch mountain goats scramble across the mountain side and further along the road we stopped at the Colorado Canyon where we paddled in the Rio Grand, it is illegal to cross the river anywhere except an authorised border crossings. And just before Presidio we visited Fort Leaton, first built in the 1700’s and called “El Fortin de San Jose” it was purchased by Ben Leaton in 1848 and operated as a trading post for the local people. It is built of adobe bricks around a central patio with a corral and stables to the rear. It was occupied until 1927 after which the family moved to California. On the return journey we stopped at Contrabando, at first glance a traditional village of adobe buildings, but on closer inspection some of them are only facades built as a film set. Evidently many films were made here but unfortunately none we had heard of.

Another good day forecast so out again on the motorbike and back into Big Bend National Park, along the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to Santa Elena Canyon. On the way we took a detour to the Mules Ears viewpoint, two huge rock ‘ears’ that can be seen from many places in the park and today were being painted by a group of artists. Then onto the canyon, we parked and walked the 2m round trip through Terlingua Creek which thankfully was only a few inches deep, up the rock stairs and along the trail cut into the side of the canyon entrance. Then down onto the bank of the river around huge boulders that had fallen from the canyon walls until finally the river filled the canyon floor and we could go no further. The river is only a few yards wide here, although it is deep and fast flowing, and the sheer wall on the other side is in Mexico while we were standing in the USA. On the way back we made two more detours, one to Santa Elena Overlook and the other to Sotol Vista named for the plants that grow in abundance up there.

Yet another good day in store so onto the motorbike and a trip into the heart of the park, Chisos Basin. We climbed through Green Gulch to 5401 feet in only 6 miles to the visitor’s centre where we found a picnic table for lunch. While gazing at a conical shaped outcrop of rock only a few hundred yards away I saw movement on a large boulder a few hundred feet up. With the aid of binoculars and the guide book we were amazed to find out it was a mountain lion, it sat there for a few minutes but before I could get the camera focused it stood up, turned and disappeared into the rocks. Although we sat there for some time with our eyes glued to the spot we never saw it again.


Our last day at Big Bend was spent tiding up and packing away, we had one last trip to Lajitas for a cold Shiner Bock and a shady spot to admire the view.