Exploring Big Bend National Park by land and by river
- Postcard Paradigms
- Apr 1
- 6 min read
Updated: May 6
Welcome to the second journey that we'll outline on this site. This March, we had another adventure, this time to Big Bend National Park in west Texas. Although we lived several years in Texas, we never made it to Big Bend. Something we absolutely had to remedy. 800,000 acres of Chihuahuan desert in west Texas that holds the entirety of the Chisos Mountain range. We looked forward to exploring Big Bend National Park: the desert, mountains, and river.
On this trip, we expect a more mellow feel, though the itinerary below looks jam packed, too. The last one was non-stop for several packed weeks. Though remote, Big Bend still easier to get to and this time we made the full itinerary ourselves and controlled our own destiny. We would need to be mindful as well, Beth very much still healing from the foot sprain on the last trip. Our approach was most definitely tuned with this in mind so that we could get the most out of this trip but not have the injury linger into other even larger adventures.
Keep in mind, Big Bend is not an amusement park by any stretch. It's a place that offers solitude that many places can't. It's remote. There's little to no light or sound pollution. So, you have to really want to go there and have a very specific type of retreat in mind. In this scenario, we had plenty of time and intended to use it to absorb what this beautiful place has to offer.
Without further delay, here is what we had planned:
Flights to the area: 1 to Houston, a connect and flight to Midland, TX
After arrival drive into Big Bend with a stopover in Fort Stockton, TX
Arrival into Big Bend with three days staying at Chisos Mountain Lodge
Three more days exploring Big Bend, but this time from further west in Terlingua Ghost Town
Venture north and west to the art mecca of Marfa, TX for a few days
Some audibles and side trips to:
Davis Mountains State Park, TX
Guadalupe Mountains National Park around Dell City, TX
Carlsbad Caverns National Park in Carlsbad, NM
Return drive from Carlsbad Caverns, NM to Midland
Return flights
The arrival landing happened in the midst of a spring windstorm that kicked up dust all the way to the cloud cover.
The drive in would be from Midland to Fort Stockton through Marathon, TX (pronounced Mara-thin) and on into Big Bend National Park and the least used entrance in Persimmon Gap.
From the map below, we took the shot at Persimmon Gap and proceeded south to Panther Junction, detouring to see Dagger Flats along the way.
We began with an off-road adventure into Dagger Flats. We missed most of the Yucca blooms, but it was a fantastic entry into the Chihuahuan desert, and the views set the tone for what we would navigate for the rest of our time here.
We then stopped at the Panther Junction station to pay the park fees, obtain more detailed maps, and get oriented with the park. We would do a quick drive east to have a look at Rio Grande Village and the overlook there before heading back west to Chisos Basin (the center of the Chisos mountain range, also where the lodge is located for the first three nights).
Ride through the tunnel headed to Rio Grande Village:
The Chisos mountain views welcomed us.
The Chisos Basin provided tremendous scenery overall; the sunset highlighted our surroundings.
The night from Chisos Mountain Lodge were second to none. This is a dark sky protected area, largest by far in North America, and it shows. The stars at night are big and bright indeed... Plenty of starry photos to click through below.
Sunrises in Big Bend and the Chisos Mountains were special. They're likely have been the best I've seen. Especially waiting for the sun to come up to take the late winter chill off of the mountains and desert.
After some hiking on a Friday morning, we made an afternoon visit to Boquillas de Carmen. Another interesting paradigm shift, I expected our crossing from Big Bend into Mexico would be on the western or southern border of the park. Not so, we actually passed east across the park border into Boquillas. An opportunistic way to visit another country, with a couple of really great restaurants in this pueblito.
After another morning hike, we enjoyed a leisurely Saturday joyride up and down Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. Along the way, we made frequent stops to enjoy Sotol Vista, Mule Ears, Castolon, and Desert Mountain.
We stopped for a walk inside Santa Elena Canyon. This canyon is absolutely gorgeous, and we would return there before our Big Bend adventure was complete.
After our Ross Maxwell venture, we proceeded west to Terlingua Ghost Town. This place is exactly what it sounds like, situated just outside of the northwest section of Big Bend. There were three or four restaurants in town (so, a relative metropolis) with a new perspective on the night sky and sunrises. We stayed in Villa Terlingua, which allowed us a fantastic way to experience the area.
The house at Terlingua Villa. The outdoor patio with a pergola was perfect for sunrises over Big Bend and taking in the night sky. Not bad for roadrunner photography, either.
On Sunday morning, we were up before dawn to join a group for a Canoe trip to the Rio Grande. The Chihuahuan desert is in an extreme drought, even for a desert (much less than 5 inches of rain over the last two years). This, coupled with excessive upstream damming of the Rio Grande, made for an extremely shallow river. A section was identified on the east side of Big Bend that ran through Hot Springs and ended in the Rio Grande Village (where we had visited days before).
When passing the Hot Springs, the temperature of the river surged. You can see the steam rising off of the river in this quick clip as we cleared past the springs.
Some more takes from our journey down the Rio... Just look at this top right photo from Beth. The contrast between the bluest sky I ever saw, and the sandstone is just, not sure what to call it. But it's good, whatever it is.
After all that, we had a very low-key Monday morning back in Terlingua. It had been a busy week in Big Bend (especially when you check out the hiking post to come). On the Monday, the park was extremely crowded (a rarity for Big Bend). It was not like this any other day, but we realized that Texas spring break had started. When you plan your trip to Big Bend - please do take that into account. This is a place to pursue solitude and that Monday it was tough to do as it was overcrowded. In any event, after an audible or two I got in a good hike at Grapevine Hills. Given the growing crowds (something we most often aim to avoid), we were grateful Monday was our last full day in the park.
The grand finale of our Big Bend trip was the sunrise off of the rock walls at Santa Elena Canyon. We were still used to East Coast time and used the recent switch to daylight savings time to hit the road early and make it to the canyon. What a fantastic morning!
Next, we hit the road to Marfa and a couple added trips to Guadalupe Mountains as well as Carlsbad Caverns National Parks.
I hope you enjoyed this one. There is a lot to cover in terms of the itinerary and wide-ranging scenery. Big Bend is tough to get to, but having a long journey there makes it even better. We loved it there - if it's your thing, we hope you check it out. If not, hey the beauty of the place comes from the solitude it grants you. So, let's keep it from getting too crowded.
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