Four Great days in Big Bend National Park…
On Wednesday we were back on the road headed to Big Bend National Park.
With dust devils visible in all directions and a dust storm on the horizon we made our way quickly through the small West Texas towns. We did make a stop on our route at Fort Davis Historical Site for another round of Junior Ranger work and badge collecting. Fort Davis ended up being much more interesting than we first expected it to be. It’s a preserved military fort situated where the old routes meet that took passengers in their carriages and buggies from San Antonio to El Paso. They have preserved or reconstructed many of the barracks, living quarters, hospital and many other buildings to show what life was like on the frontier. It’s surrounded by large rock walls which I’m sure helped in its protection. 2-3 hours is a great amount of time to explore the park and take advantage of all it has to teach and offer.
We finished our drive and arrived a few hours later at our camping spot at Big Bend Station in Terlingua, Texas just outside of Big Bend National Park.
Terlingua doesn’t have much to it that isn’t associated with the National Park and has very little to offer outside of things you’d need for basic needs. Groceries and gas are limited there and within the park so that’s something to prepare for before you spend an extended time in that area. There is a new Dollar General that is a big help but it doesn’t appear to get regular deliveries quite yet (milk was a no-go while we were there).
Big Bend Station was a fine enough campground for us though we did expect a little more when we booked our spot.
Though laundry was included in the description at booking, it wasn’t available due to drought conditions (which is the usual in the desert) and it was $2 for a 6 minute shower in the bathhouse. We have a shower in our camper but when possible we like to take advantage of a more spacious shower at a bathhouse. These showers were spacious but there was only one available in the women’s due to one being out of order and they didn’t appear to be cleaned much, if at all, in the 4 nights we stayed. We also spent over $25 on showers but were thankful it was at least an option since there are 6 of us that need to get clean after hiking. Our total was $174 for for the 4 nights ($43 a night) plus the shower cost so it was still a good price with a great location but what was on the website and what you got didn’t necessarily matchup in our book.
Ok, now on to Big Bend National Park itself. Incase you don’t know, it’s HUGE.
It's one of the largest National Parks in the lower 48. Again, prepare for amenities not being immediately available while in the park. There is gas available inside the park but you’ll pay a premium price. They do, however, actually have full hookup camping spots for larger rigs. While its not where we stayed, it was awesome to see the option because that usually isn’t a reality within the National Parks. With the park being so large, it’s a decent drive between locations inside the park itself. But in doing so, you really see it all. Big Bend offers almost every scenery you can image. There are deep canyons along the Rio Grande, vast deserts, tall mountains and bright stars at night.
Our first full day in the park we woke up to no power thanks to a storm that blew through during the night
(we actually ended up with rain two nights in a row which is a rarity) but it lead to an overcast day which it made it so much more pleasant and many of the activities more doable since the heat wasn’t as intense. There is a lot to see in the park but often you want to do them at sunrise or sunset do to the temps. With an overcast day we were basically free to explore it all without having to worry about the heat so much. Our first stop was to the Castillos Boarder Customs to walk into Boquillas, Mexico. Having an entry point into Mexico is something that makes Big Bend special and the kids were so excited to mark another country off their list without acquiring an airline ticket. As you drive through the park towards Castillos you can see the brightly colored Mexican town in the distance. We went through the US Boarder checkpoint and walked down to the river. There is an option for a boat to take you across the Rio Grande but at $5 a person, and 6 people, it adds up quickly so we decided to cross on foot. It’s not a very wide point in the river and the man guiding the boat you pay for was physically walking the small boat back and forth with the people inside so it was obvious that walking the river was OK. It was a little slippery with a few tricky rocks but we made it with no problems. Cruz was on my back, Phoenix was on Evan’s shoulders and Gray and Kyrie marched on through themselves. Honestly I think crossing the Rio Grande on foot added a lot of fun to the experience. Once on the Mexican side there were more people offering donkey and horse rides into the town. While this would also be a fun experience, again, the money adds up with 6 people and its a flat 0.6 mile walk on a flat dirt road to the town. Boquillas is a small town with two restaurants and it’s obvious they keep afloat by visitors coming from the park for a visit. There are street side vendors with plenty of Mexican goods for purchase. After walking around for a bit we chose to eat at Jose Falcon for lunch since it had a great view of the river and valley. It was such a fun experience for us to take our Hispanic child into Mexico and have his favorite food for lunch. After we ate we headed back down the road to the river (after purchasing a few strawberry empanadas along the way) and crossed back through the Rio Grande back into the USA. After passport checks, we were back in the car ready to find our next hiking spot.
Just down the road form where we crossed the border, we decided to hike into Boquillas Canyon. This trail had a quick steep up and down portion and then was a pretty flat hike into the canyon. The walls of the canyon were so tall that it was hard for our eyes to adjust to take it all in. There were a few wild horses meandering about that Cruz loved seeing from his blissful spot on my back. Gray was able to run all over and climb into tall caves and do all the things that boys dream of in the wild. Phoenix was close on his tail doing what he could to keep up with his older brother. Evan, of course, was capturing all the sights while Kyrie stayed on the trail and took it all in. While it was hot, we were still so thankful for the overcast clouds coming and going and making it much more bearable than it normally would have in the early afternoon.
Next up, and on the same side of the park, was the historic hot springs area. The kids learned a good bit about this spot thanks to their Junior Ranger Assignments. In our minds there were going to be several hot spring pools to jump in and there were a lot of people headed that way in swimsuits. So we grabbed our snack bags and water shoes and took off down the short trail. While it was an interesting area and easy walk, we only found one smaller hot springs pool that was full of people. I’m glad we experienced it but also glad it was more of a quick add on and not something we planned a lot of time for or got the kids changed into swimsuits for. We sat on the wall with our legs in and felt we had the experienced it well enough. Towards the end of our day we headed up to The Basin in the Chisos Mountains to take in the time before sunset. It was such a different view from the canyon and almost hard to believe it was the same park. We finished off the sunset views as we drove back to the campsite. We’d left chili cooking in the crockpot and after such a packed day in the park it was a welcome treat when we returned to the campground.
On our second full day we took our time leaving the camper until lunch trying to escape some of the heat on such a sunny day. We took a drive to a local ghost town thinking it would be a neat place to see with some possible shade but it wasn’t exactly what we expected. It was more of an area for artisan shopping than an actual ghost town. While it probably would have been a cool stop for adults, there wasn’t much for us to take in there with the kids. So back into the park we went. We took our time seeing the sights from our air-conditioned car and drove slowly making our way to Santa Elena Canyon. This was Evan’s favorite view of the trip. We went down to the river and threw rocks and took our time playing around waiting on the sun to go down a little bit. Once it finally snuck close enough to going behind the Canyon, Evan and the three big kids got ready to hike. The park map said that this hike crossed the “usually” dry creek that runs into the Rio Grande. Turns out that after a big night of rain that the creek isn’t dry at all and if you step in the wrong spot, it’s over waist deep on a tall man…. that tall man being Evan. Gray and Kyrie, like the day before, made their away across the creek not worrying if it took a little swim and thoroughly enjoying it while Phoenix, again, took it all in the dry spot on Evan’s shoulders. Cruz and I stayed behind since the creek crossing with my short legs and him on my back wouldn’t have been so pretty. We threw rocks and sticks which is one of his favorite pastimes, trumped only by his LOVE of animals. A large heard of cows decided to make their way through the area so we dropped our rocks and spent some quality time moo’ing back at cows. It was about as much enjoyment as Cruz could have asked for. When Evan and the other kids made it back they were all in great spirits talking about the hike and the pretty canyon and, of course, crossing the creek again. It was a win. As the sun went down we made our way back to the campground in time for the Auburn basketball game headed to the sweet 16. War Eagle!
After the Auburn win, Evan left early (or was it late?) to capture the stars.
With Big Bend stating that it’s the darkest spot in the lower 48 to be able to capture the stars, how could he not?
After stars Evan took a sunrise hike to balanced rock
(while out at night and sunrise there were deer, coyote and ringtail cats (no pics of those 😔) . Thankfully the day brought some overcast shade amongst the sun.
When he got back to the camper he gathered up the big boys and they headed to Big Bend Ranch State Park
to hike the Closed Canyon (which is in fact the name of the canyon, not the status of the trail). Kyrie wasn’t feeling so well that morning so Cruz and I stayed back with her making sure she was on the mend. By the time the camper was getting a bit too hot to enjoy, the boys were back and collected the rest of us. Unfortunately, after we were nice and far into the park, I got a little sick myself and it became a sunset drive just for a bathroom. So back to the camper we went for supper. Thankfully, we felt like after three days that we had seen a lot of the park and weren’t missing out on too much. There will always be more hikes for the ultra explorer but three days felt like it was a good time for a family.
