When we told our friends we were going to camp at Big Bend National Park over Spring Break, the most common question we got was: "Where is that?"
Big Bend is Deep in the Heart of Texas. As in, really, really deep.
The easiest answer is that Big Bend, as its name suggests, is in the big bend that the Rio Grande makes in Texas along the Mexican border. The most practical answer is that you go about halfway between San Antonio and El Paso on I-10 and head south two more hours into the middle of nowhere.
The breathtaking scenery lies in the contrasts of its various ecosystems: the Chisos Mountains, deep canyons, the Chihuahuan Dessert and the Rio Grande river itself.
What allowed us to actually catch our breath here is that Big Bend provides a total escape from reality. Cell phone service is limited, and the internet is non-existant. The closest town is a a ghost town named Terlingua. And the town next to that, Lajitas, proclaims a goat as its mayor. You can drive an hour or longer inside the park to get from your campsite to a trail.
If that sounds as appealing to you as it did for us, then be sure to fill up your gas tank every chance you get (as the next gas station may be 50 miles away) and check out this list of the top seven reasons why you should visit Big Bend National Park.
1. The remoteness. Due to its remote location, only 440,000 people visit Big Bend each year. And the park is HUGE - 800,000 acres - so you will have the trails and viewpoints mostly to yourself. There are two reservable campsites in the park (Rio Grande Village and Chisos Mountain), and one lodge (Chisos Mountain) as well as some backcountry campsites. Terlingua has some hotels not listed on traditional booking sites. As one advertised: "This is not the Holiday Inn. If you want that, drive two hours north." This was exactly the kind of vacation we were looking for during the pandemic. So we booked a tent site at Rio Grande Village, packed our adventurous spirit and drove 16 hours to get here. And it was well worth it.
2. The Rio Grande. It is amazing to ponder the fact that one river, which is only shin deep in some spots allowing you to walk across it, separates two entire countries and two entirely different ways of life. The Rio Grande is magnificent, and most of our favorite hikes and adventures here involved the river in one form or another. We canoed the Rio Grande out of the neighboring Big Bend State Park, which is worth a side-trip. Several outfitters service the national park for full-day and overnight trips, but with the kids, we opted for the three-hour trip through Dark Canyon. We used Angell Expeditions, which we highly recommend. Two of our favorite hikes at Big Bend National Park were Santa Elena Canyon and Boquillas Canyon, which lead you to awe-inspiring views of the river. And we could walk about a half-mile from our campsite to swim in the river in the evening and cool off. We found a deep spot with a hot spring flowing down from the Mexican side and made memories to last a lifetime swimming here.
3. Cool rock formations. If hiking to and climbing on cool rocks sounds like fun for the kids (and for you), then Big Bend has plenty to offer. Our favorite was Balanced Rock, an easy two-mile hike that has you climbing up rocks the last quarter-mile to get to the namesake rock that will have you wondering how on earth did it get there. The shade-less hike to the Chimneys can be brutal if you do not leave early enough. But if you make it, you will find Native American petroglyphs and evidence of where they prepared corn and other foods many years ago. The Buro Mesa Pour Off was also very neat and easy to get to.
4. Hikes for all skill levels. Big Bend offers flat hikes and steep mountain hikes, short nature walks and overnight backcountry hikes requiring permits, and everything in between. Our favorites are 1-4 miles long so we can take several in one day to switch out the scenery. We spent three full days and hiked quite a bit, but have several we would like to return to do. We did not do any Chisos hikes as the road was under construction and access there was limited, so The Windows remains on our Things To Do list. Wake up before the sun rises and hit the trails to avoid the hottest part of the day. And bring plenty of water (at least 2 liters per person), sunscreen and a hat.
5. The wildlife. We had never had bulls roam through our campground before... until Big Bend. If you are near Boquillas Canyon and Rio Grande Village, you will see cows, bulls, horses and donkeys that roam freely. These may not officially count as wildlife, as they belong to Mexican ranchers, but we loved them. One horse we passed along the road to Boquillas even put his head inside our car to say hello. As far as actual wildlife, we saw javalinas (wild pigs), jackrabbits, a road runner, a paragrine falcon, and long-horned sheep.
6. More stars than you can imagine. Big Bend is an International Dark Sky Park. You can see more stars here than you can in any other National Park in the lower 48 states. Camping, in our opinion, is the best way to do this. Look up and marvel at the beauty of the unending number of stars you will see here that you will never be able to see at home. We took the fly off our tent, which has a large "sky light" and were absolutely amazed.
7. Dinosaurs! It's hard to believe that the entirety of Big Bend was under a vast ocean floor 100 million years ago. The park has an award-winning dinosaur exhibit with fossils and illustrations that allow visitors to imagine the many changes this land underwent as it transitioned from ocean to swamp to desert. The remains of 90 species of dinosaurs have been found here, including the Mosasaurus, a 30-foot long sea-dwelling reptile; the duck-billed Hadrosaurs; gigantic crocodiles; and - since everything is bigger in Texas - a Texas-sized giant known as the Alamosaurus. One of the world's largest flying dinosaurs, the pterosaur, which sounds terrifying with its 39-foot wingspan, also lived here.
So if you are looking for a National Park with scenery that rivals any other but without the crowds, make the long drive to Big Bend and experience this one for yourself. Remember to bring your cell phone to take plenty of pictures, as that will be all your phone will be good for here.
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