Big Bend National Park

While we planned our travels this was always the first big destination we were aiming to get to pretty fast – hence some of the big distances and long travel days we have been going through over the last couple of weeks.

Driving to Big Bend through the Chihuahuan Desert is much nicer than we anticipated. We are here mid of April, and it’s spring. There is green trees and a few flowers along the way, and the roads are pleasant after the busy highways we experienced in Dallas and Austin.

We arrive at Roadrunner RV Park in Terlingua, TX in the afternoon.

Short digression: you might have the feeling that the little ghost town of Terlingua rings a bell. It became famous by the “cat lawyer video”. I am still in tears every time I watch this video of a real trial via zoom…

We get up really early on our first morning. It is going to be hot. Really hot! We are expecting temperatures up to 104°F (40°C). It is surprisingly cool in the early morning hours (66°F, 19°C), but at 10 o’clock it will get hot. We get going right after sunrise. The sun only rises around 7:30 AM. At 7:15 we are on our way to the national park. Our destination is a beautiful hike into a canyon at the end of the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive.

We allow ourselves only a few stops (and an emergency conversation with Brenda and Alex about the leaking hot water tank at home). When we get to the Santa Elena Canyon parking lot it is still pretty empty, and we are able to find a spot in the shade. We close all the blinds, as we will have to leave Winni in the camper. Big Bend National Park doesn’t allow any dogs outside of roads, campgrounds and parking lots.

Santa Elena Canyon is a slot canyon that goes down to the Rio Grande, and the hike leads us through a creek and up a hill, and we walk alongside the river into the narrowing canyon.

To the left of the river is Mexico – some people take off shoes and socks and walk over. We are fine just seeing it…

After an hour we are back at the RV, very happy to see it is still in full shade and inside it is warm, but not too hot.

It is still early in the day, so we decide to drive down to Rio Grande Village. On the way we stop at the visitor center and figure that we won’t be able to explore the Chiso Mountains Part of the National Park with our camper. There are just too many sharp turns and steep grades, and we don’t want to take any risks.

We enjoy our trip down towards the river, and takeout excellent Mexican food before we return to our campground.

The next morning we follow the recommendation of a campground neighbor and follow Route 170 right in front of our campground to Presidio. Our drive takes us along Rio Grande with spectacular views to the lush valley, the river and the mountains. The majority of the ride takes us through Big Bend Ranch State Park, and we enjoy the numerous scenic stops.

Beautiful flowers line our ride

Rio Grande is right next to us, and we can kind of touch the Mexican border

Overlooking Rio Grande

We combine a beautiful ride with some necessary errands (laundry and grocery shopping), get some great Mexican food and enjoy our scenic drive back to Terlingua.

BBR State Park Drive

At night back in Terlingua we experience a phenomena neither of us have ever seen: A moon halo. What a spectacular end to those fantastic days around Big Bend.