Big Bend N.P. TX (BIBE)

 

Unbeknownst to us, we chose one of the busiest tourist weeks at Big Bend – the week of Thanksgiving (the other being Spring Break.) The lodge and all of the park’s campgrounds were full, but forward-thinkers that we are, we had reservations at a place just outside the park’s easternmost entrance, Persimmon Gap. This park was a destination we’d had in mind since before hitting the road, and it has partially dictated the route we’ve taken through Texas so far.

Big Bend National Park ranks as the 15th largest in land mass, although its accessibility makes it seem even larger than that. To reach many of the park’s activities requires daily driving of anywhere from 20-50+ miles, even if you’re staying in the park. To that end, the park has five visitor centers, two gas stations, three small grocery stores, a restaurant, and a lodge. It is not a place to visit in a hurry, although I will tell you that I’m pretty sure we were the only ones observing the 45mph speed limit.

We had given ourselves 10 days to see how much of a dent we could make in what Big Bend was offering. Fix yourself a snack, get comfy, and let’s see if we tore the roof off the place.

Food and Lodging

Even though the park has those three little grocery stores, we had a tough time keeping stocked on fresh food. The little grocery stores had some a few times, and we paid through the nose for it, but to get to decent groceries outside the park is a drive of 50 or more miles one way. We didn’t quite have to sink to the Twinkies & Squeeze Cheese Diet, though it was by a narrow margin. To be fair, all the park stores were well-stocked with a great variety of other grocery and camping items, had we needed them, and they were open daily. The gas prices were great, as well, making all that driving so much less painful than it could’ve been.

The place we stayed was called Stillwell Store and RV Park, and it was eight miles outside the Persimmon Gap Entrance. It is a private park, but surprisingly is shown on the NP map and permanently painted on the big visitor center contour display! I’m not going to make a long post even longer by fully reviewing the place here, but when I have reliable internet, I do post reviews at a site called Campendium and often on RV Park Reviews as well, under the name Chasing Dirt. We consistently use those both of those free sites when we are route-planning and really appreciate others who share good information and helpful tips. We are in no way associated with either, no money, no reciprocal anything, don’t blame me if you have a different experience, mmmkay?

Stillwell’s is the only place to stay outside the eastern entrance and isn’t as popular as the western or Terlingua side, making it quieter and a bit more remote-feeling. Different “neighbors” came and went while we were there, but we were well spread out, and after the holiday, we had our side of the ranch entirely to ourselves. I feel like hiking, though, so let’s get out of here!

Dog Canyon, 4 miles

No dogs allowed.

This was the closest hike to where we were camped, at a mere ±9 miles away and seemed like a good place to start.

Heading for that gap in the hazy distance.

It began with a level trek across scrubby desert, following cairns. It was not only a bit overcast when we began, but Big Bend is often blanketed by a sulfate haze. It’s pollution, it’s not new (old permanent reader boards explain it at one of the VCs), but was an unpleasant surprise for us.

My kingdom for a cairn!

 Before long, the trail dropped into a wash and followed that for the remainder of the hike. The cairns were sparse in the wash, and on the way out, we had fun constructing new ones.

By the time we reached the canyon, the sun was burning through the haze a bit.

 

 It was a beautiful canyon, and the perfect distance for our maiden trek in the park.

Window, 5.6 miles

It has been awhile since we had to leave early in the morning for a hike or fight a crowd in any way, thus we were stupidly unprepared for the horde of tourists at the Chisos Basin area when we showed up in the late morning. Chisos is the epicenter of the park, encompassing the lodge, restaurant, a visitor center, and a majority of the most popular trail heads. After a 35 mile drive into the park, we circled around and around and around the lots, dodging oblivious gawkers, pestering people at their cars, “Are you leaving? Are you leaving?” and just before we succumbed to defeat, I proclaimed I was going to go around one more time, and that turned out to be the best birthday gift I could’ve given TBG, whose special day I sort of…forgot…until then.

Do I look older? Hungry?

The Window Trail is one of the park’s iconic treks.

Because the views are stunning.

  After descending many erosion steps, the trail flattened out and traveled through trees along the Window Pour-off.

 

 

The trail is in here somewhere.

About ¼ mile before the view through the “window,” the trail demanded some rock-hopping over the water. This created a bottleneck of hikers. I was sure we were going to watch someone fall in the drink and/or crack their pumpkin, but everyone miraculously made it.

  We reached a point at which we could see through the window, and while it wasn’t the proper end of the trail, we called it good enough, having had our fill of all the people and knowing we’d have that view from even higher up in a few days.

A quiet moment at last.

We were never alone long, making photos without others in them a challenge.

But we found a few moments nonetheless.

Hot Springs, 6 miles

Have swim trunks, will hike!

We didn’t hold out much hope that there would be a place to change into our suits when we got to the springs, nor did we believe we’d be alone to go skinny, but we packed them along just in case. Hope springs eternal yuk-yuk-yuk. Seriously, though, someone needs to develop a bathing suit that can be hiked in comfortably, so if you’d get busy on that, I’ll be your first customer.

  This trail paralleled the Rio Grande with great views all along the way.

ammorite, amirite?

 As could be predicted, the springs were full of noisy soakers, and even if there had been a place for us to change, no thank you.

  We had passed through a nice, shaded area among some boulders on the way out, and returned to it for our snack-stop on the way back.

Table for two, please.

 Even though the springs were a bust for us, we had little to complain about on such a beautiful day.

Ore Terminal, ~7 miles

Perhaps we should have chosen a fourteener.

This hike leads to an old ore mine terminal just as the name suggests.

Manageable!

The first mile or two was an easy desert walk.

  The trail soon climbed, however, and continued to go up and down several times over rough and rocky footing.

Remnants.

The trail followed an old cable for most of the way, and the sight of it was reassuring as we made our way up. When we reached the last summit from which we could finally see the ore terminal destination, we wimped out and called it quits. The thought of going down one more lumpy hill was just too much, and the sight of the pile of sticks that was the old terminal did not inspire us to tough it out. We sat on some rocks in the sun and enjoyed our lunch before testing our ankles on the way back down.

Ore Terminal – does this inspire you?

 Thanksgiving

We have spent the last four (?) Thanksgivings in an RV, the holiday weekend being our last trip of the year, so this felt “usual” for us. We took a rest day and feasted on some near-traditional foods, giving much thanks for all our blessings.

Emory Peak, 10.6 miles

Having learned our lesson about the early birds, we were up before sunrise and on the road in the dark. For the most part because TBG does most of the RV driving, I do all the car driving, but I’m not so happy about driving in the dark these days which meant TBG took the wheel for this outing, and I got to enjoy the views.

such as this

 We saw at least three coyotes on the way in

and this non-pig porker.

I also got the sign duty.

5.3 miles of climbing erosion steps and switchbacks lay ahead of us, and although it was cool, it wasn’t long before we were just in our shirtsleeves. TBG dubbed this hike The Turkey Burner.

 The topography leaves no mystery as to why the Chisos Basin is the heart of the park.

breathtaking views at every turn

About 1.5 miles from the summit was a rest area and a trail junction.

For your convenience.

These boxes were provided as a courtesy for those who wanted to leave their heavy packs because, as you’ll see, the final summit to the peak involved a bit of scrambling or as I like to think of it “danger-crawling.”

A little piece of advice: PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, LEARN WHAT “PACK IT OUT” MEANS! Good God Gertie, the number of people we saw wandering around with garbage in their hands wanting to throw it in the pack boxes or the pit toilet or the peat moss box was maddening.

 I wish idiots smelled more attractive to the bears. I’m kidding. Sort of.

We chose to keep our packs on because we’re the toughest mo-fos you’ll ever meet on the trail. Now I really am kidding, but we did keep our packs with us.

A smile brought to you by pure delirium.

 Atop that wall behind me, about 15′ up, is the “true” summit of Emory Peak, but neither one of us was into danger-crawling the rock face. If you’re keeping a scorecard, you can deduct points for us not truly summiting. I call it a soft-summit, and I’m gonna go ahead and check the box on my scorecard.

A fellow hiker took the best picture of the two of us we’ve gotten in a long time, maybe ever.

Behold! Our 2018 Christmas card!

 The rule of thumb is that if it’s hard going up, it’s painful going back down, but pretty birds help take your mind off your barking dogs.

The beautifully blue Mexican Jay, playing coy.

Santa Elena, Mule Ears Spring, and Ward Spring, 6.8 miles combined

Furthest from where we were staying was the most well-known overlook of Big Bend, the Santa Elena Canyon. The morning we visited it was cool and overcast and not at all the best for the pictures we’d hoped to take.

Staying positive.

Sadly, the trail was flooded and inaccessible, so we couldn’t get to the best vantage point to view the narrowest part of the canyon. On a warmer day and with our water sandals, we may have forded the false river, but that wasn’t going to happen this day.

 You can barely see me at the river’s edge, but where I am standing is almost directly opposite from where the trail would go across. Backtracking, we stopped at the Castolon VC, which was practically a ghost town.

  Not to be denied getting a bit more dust on our boots, we headed out towards the second hike we had planned.

TBG shows great enthusiasm.

Our destination was Mule Ears Spring.

If a cactus falls in the desert, does it make a sound these ears can hear?

 Not long into the trail, we crossed paths with a fuzzy little friend. This was the only trail on which we saw them, but they were often crossing the roads as we drove through the park.

Don’t mind me, just passing through.

 And, oddly enough, although I’ve had life-long arachnophobia, I’m not really afraid of tarantulas anymore. They’re furry, which makes them appear almost cuddly. They’re not aggressive and have no interest in anything human. They can only hurt you if you pick them up and put them near your face where they can rub their legs on their bellies, dislodge the hairs, then fling them in your eyes. Since I have no intention of actually ever cuddling one, I have nothing to fear. Rock on, fuzzy belly-hair flingers!

We love a hike with a clear destination, and this one did not disappoint.

  The water was flowing, the foliage around the rocks was lush, and other critters were enjoying the oasis.

  The sun was out in earnest for our way back out, lighting up fabulous views.

 Since we were shorted our mileage for the day which had become lovely weather-wise, I talked TBG into picking up another trail.

 

 The spring created a narrow flowing creek, making a cool channel in among the rocks.

 We weren’t the only ones who thought so, as we spotted some pretty fresh bear scat, so we didn’t linger at the water for long.

 

A day that began in disappointment, ended in glory.

Lost Mine Trail, 4.8 miles

We didn’t know it, but we saved one of the best for last. Even though the holiday crush had subsided, we were up very early again, and at the trail shortly after sunrise.

  This is considered another “high bear” area, and I swear we met so many people who had seen bears in the park during our time there, but we weren’t to be those people. The park brochure also warns of cougars, but it says that should you encounter one, all you have to do is make yourself look big and noisy, and the cat will scamper away. It actually says that. I don’t know about you, but “scamper” is not a word I would ever associate with mountain lions. Luckily, we never had to find out.

  The large carnivores may have well seen us, though, because walking into the sun for the first part of the trail blinded us to the spotting of anything. We had our walking sticks with us, and click-clacked them on the rocks as we went so as not to surprise anything hungry.

beautifully clear morning

This was a steady climb of a trail, culminating in an exhilarating, or if you’re me, terrifying, section at the top.

 The trail follows the fin you see here, then continues up to that rocky prominence on the right. The picture makes it look much wider and less treacherous than it felt in person. 

my snack-time view

nothing but nothing behind us

Wrapping It Up

The park newspaper indicates that if visitors have a week or more to explore the park, endless possibilities are open to them. In our visit, we were able to spend quality time in each of the park’s major sections. Not endless, of course, but not too shabby at all.

 Nope, not too shabby at all.