Big Bend National and State Parks

Days 13 and 14: Big Bend National and State Parks, TX

Big Bend National Park… my first national park of the trip, and it didn’t disappoint. This is Western Texas, rugged land.

There were no camping reservations available in the park. They were operating at half capacity, and there aren’t many spots to start with. I probably could have gotten a spot at the adjacent state park, but I didn’t really understand the lay of the land when I was making my plans. This area is expansive, with lots of driving required to explore.

There are some great camping spots on private land in the area, and I found one through Hipcamp, which is like an AirBnB for camping on private land. While it was a good half-hour drive to the little supply town of Terlingua and the national and state park entrances, we stayed in the desert at the Eco-Ranch Sustainable Living Center, which was spectacularly beautiful and quirky. After a five-mile drive through the desert on primitive roads (see the video), we grabbed a remote site on the far end of a mesa, with gorgeous views and privacy, and lots of room for Zeke to run. We stayed here for three nights, enjoying campfires and complete quiet.

Hazy creamy desert view with mountains far off

Here’s a taste of the five-mile drive in to my campsite…

Hazy creamy desert view with the road ahead mountains far off

Hazy creamy desert view with mountains far off, and a quirky bus stop and bench with Zeke (my golden retriever) looking at it

Random fake bus stop on a desert road with a skeleton on the bench and mesa and camper behind

Over the coming days, the dust settled and blue skies slowly returned…

Evening light overlooking the desert with brush and Zeke backlit in the distance

Campsite with the white van, red chair, Zeke and smoking campfire, on the white desert mesa with the sun setting in the distance mountains.

Hazy mountain view with layers of landscape stretching the horizon

Map of Big Bend area — We were camping in one of those white desert spots north of Terlingua. Credit: Google Maps.

We spent the first full day exploring the state park and the second day exploring the national park. The state park is different and really quite remarkable… well worth a visit. Zeke and I were able to explore more and take a couple of short hikes, which was entirely restricted in the national park. And we had great BBQ and Mexican food in between in quirky Terlingua.

The photos simply do not capture the scale and simple beauty of Big Bend, nor the emotions of exploring this long border with Mexico… in some places a simple walk across the Rio Grande River, which in this area is gentle and shallow, cutting through meadows in some places and creating caverns through impressive mountains in others. Border patrol doesn’t seem to even try to manage this stretch, but rather has checkpoints on the few roads in and out.

State Park

Rock outcrop with uniquely formed rock towers and cacti in the forefront

Hazy view of green valley and mountains rising in the distance

Jagged rock background with cacti in forefront

Zeke looking happy on a trail with grasses, green shrubs and a hill rising behind

Purple flowers that look like larkspur rising from green stems and surrounded by brown grasses

View of the gentle Rio Grande River with rocks in the water, grasses on the right and green shrubs and mountains rising on the left

View of the gentle Rio Grande River with rocks in the water, grasses, green shrubs and mountains rising

National Park

Layers of hazy landscape with green cacti rising from white rocks in the front and hills and jagged mountains in the distance

Green river valley in spring with mountains rising above

Desert mountains rise above a flat stretch of desert with assorted cacti

A cairn on top of an overlook with mountains stretching below

Photo of woman (me) and dog on a path at the top of an overlook with the mountains and valley stretching below to the horizon — Here we are super high up on an overlook with views all the way around. There is just no way to capture the depth and expansiveness of it all.

Desert view with various cacti in the foreground and jagged outcrops beyond

There’s a small Mexican town across from the national park that had been accessible from the park, but they closed access in March 2020 due to Covid, effectively shutting this town off from the world and their tourism livelihood. Townspeople crossed the river to leave their goods for sale on an honor system, and they watch from the other side.

Colorful trinkets made from beds sit atop a rock, with the Rio Grande and Mexican border behind

I read The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea as I traveled through this area and into New Mexico, crossing many Border Patrol checkpoints with them barely giving me a glance, even in a cargo van, and it all made a deep impression. Forbidding and unforgiving land.

Once you actually see it, the idea of a border wall is all the more absurd. And how devastating it would be to the people, animals, and landscape of this beautiful land.