Big Bend National Park, TX
Sometimes GPS doesn’t take you where you want to go, and sometimes you don’t know all the right questions when you ask for directions. Both those were the case when I made my reservations at Big Bend Ranch State Park in TX. There were no reservations left at the National Park, so I planned to stay my first night at a nearby state park before going to Big Bend.
Texas is ginormous and the GPS said it would take six hours to get to the state park from Central Texas. I usually don’t like to travel more than 300 miles in a day because there’s so much to see and because Ella needs to be wild and free, but in Texas you really can’t help it.
Leaving the hill country behind, I clicked Drive and we were on our way. Turns out, the state park is huge – everything’s bigger in TX – and when I arrived, I was at the wrong gate, and it was closed. Getting to the right gate would take another two hours! Ok, forget that; I’ll camp anywhere now. It’s 9:00 pm, and the drive had been way more than 6 hours – more like 8 – and I was exhausted.
I passed an RV park and stopped and asked if they had tent sites. The attendant said sure, and at the same time a young woman walked in asking for a tent site for her and her dog. We parked next to each other, the only car campers in the area, and we spent the whole night talking, sharing stories, and enjoying each other’s company. Her name was Tiara, and she was in her 20’s, had just quit her job, sold everything, and sleeps in her car, traveling the US. She traveled from the opposite direction, so she had just seen CA, AZ, and NM. After her US adventure she’s heading to Europe. She was a kindred spirit and an absolute delight – a breath of fresh air after my dispiriting day.
The following day we went our separate ways, and I went on to Big Bend National Park. What a joy!
The Chisos Mountains are self-contained inside the park, and they are beautiful. The range is huge, which means the park is huge. It took a few hours to drive across it, end to end. Every part of it was gorgeous. I was limited in my hiking options with Ella, but there were plenty of opportunities to see the mountains on paved paths, scenic drives, and from overlooks. Truly breathtaking.
The sand was a light tan, more like dried clay, I assume from eroded sandstone and limestone. The foliage was fairly sparse and suited to this arid climate: yucca, prickly pear, walking sticks, and scrubby shrubs. Most of the mountains were bare or sprinkled with small, green shrubs, but at different elevations the foliage would change. At one point they were covered with small, fluffy, yellow, pom-poms, at another with juniper, cedar, and pines. Some are covered in smooth, slate-gray gravel, some in soft, golden sand, some in bright orange boulders. Bluebonnets were just starting to bloom, and road runners and deer crossed our path.
The views from the overlooks were striking because the mountains stretch seemingly forever. Some views are hazy-blue and jagged, some orangish-brown and flat-topped, some with broad, barren valleys in front of them, and some surrounding small but vibrant river basins. Some are part of a long, continuous series of mountains, and some stand alone like an upside-down funnel. All are awe-inspiring.
There are numerous places to discover beauty, and two of my favorites were the Chisos Basin and the Boquillas Hot Springs. The scenic drive to the Chisos Basin wound upward in the midst of the mountains on switchbacks and hairpins, and the views were magnificent. The road was lined with conifers, maybe the most green there is in one place at the park. The mountains were strikingly jagged and huge, rising into the blue sky, silhouetted against the sun-lit, white, fluffy clouds. There seemed to be no end to the variety of shapes or textures. It was a spectacular drive.
The Hot Springs drive was a one-lane, very winding, white, dirt road that hugged steeply angled cliff faces. The mountains were mostly bald and striated, like no others in the park. This area was not open to RVs or trailers, so once again I was super happy I was in my Subaru. When we got to the destination, Ella was not allowed on the hot springs trail, so I talked to a few volunteers at the trailhead. They said next week would be spring break, and the natural bath would be filled with students. The water is around 105 degrees and feeds the Rio Grande, so bathers would jump from the bath to the river and back again. Ella and I explored the ruins from the original settlers who had built the bathhouse – pretty dang cool.
I’m going to digress here and talk about Texans and how they pronounce Spanish words. Rio Grande is pronounced Rio Grand, coyote is coyot (long o), Guadalupe is Guadalup (long u), San Antonio is San Anton (long o). All the Spanish names are kept, but the pronunciations are Anglicized, or should I say Americanized. The strangest one is Pedernales River, which is pronounced Perdinalis. Texans are adorable. I think it goes back to Texas being a republic and the Mexican Wars, I’m not sure, but you absolutely stand out as a furiner when you pronounce all the syllables in a word!
Camping at Big Bend was a mixed bag. I was at the Rio Grande campground, and it was very crowded. Even the backcountry sites looked full. As I was driving to my reserved site, there was a wild boar foraging in the campground a few sites away. Bears, coyotes, and other critters are expected visitors, but I really wasn’t expecting a boar. I’m so glad Ella missed it because she would have been in full predator mode! After setting up camp and a quick supper, I pulled out my Stargazer chair and relaxed in the dark, staring at the starlit sky.
Big Bend is designated a Dark Sky destination for its remoteness and lack of light pollution, so I was really looking forward to the night sky views. The Milky Way is prominent during summer but not so much in winter, so I knew I wouldn’t get that spectacular view, and to be sure, I saw way more stars than I ever did at home, but because of all the people, the accompanying lights meant I didn’t get the views of the stars I was hoping for.
These campers were off-the-chain social and obviously didn’t know about quiet hours. I usually say the RVers make the most noise in a campsite because they bring children and generators. In this case, it was the tent campers who kept me awake, telling stories and laughing well past midnight. I almost got irritated, but I remembered the night before when I stayed up laughing and sharing stories with Tiara late into the night. Everyone deserves to have a good time and to make sweet and solid connections. Also, laughter is good for the soul, even when you’re just listening to it!