Big Bend National Park

There were very few RVs in the park at this time
of year but this must be a popular spot when it's
warmer. For us, it was balmy at 68!

 

It was a long 6 hour drive down to Terlingua to our next destination, Big Bend National Park. We were unable to get spots inside the park so made reservations for 3 nights at the Terlingua Ranch Resort. Somehow we missed the fact it was 44 miles away! It took us almost an hour to reach the park entrance. Driving up the 16 mile road from the highway to the ranch was an experience. Hundreds of tiny homesteads are scattered over huge swaths of desert, intermingled with awesome mesas and mountains. Five thousand of these in the area collectively own the ranch and almost 200,000 acres of rugged natural beauty.

This area was most recently settled by miners that arrived at the end of the 19th Century to mine mercury from cinnabar. The Mariposa Mine was the largest one and mining continued off and on until the last mine closed in 1971. Carroll Shelby, the car racing legend, and his buddies moved here in the 1960s and established the Terlingua Racing Team and its famous rabbit logo.

The next day we headed for the Park headquarters and a helpful Ranger suggested our two-day itinerary. That day we drove the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive down to the Rio Grande at the Castolan Historic District and the views of the Santa Elena Canyon. We completed the trip by finishing the circle on the Old Maverick Road, a 4 wheel drive only rough track. I'll cover our next day in another post. Wifi is hard to come by on this trip and I'm hoping to get some time and available wifi at the same time to catch up on my posts!

The view from our trailer at the Terlingua Ranch

The views as we start along the Ross Maxwell
Scenic Route

The vegetation is quite varied when you get 
close up. But being winter not so colorful.

The bare trees had a sculptural quality we loved.

And they make a nice frame for a photo

The trail into Burro Mesa Runoff - a 2 mile easy
trip into this blind canyon.

We met a few others on the trail
and one warned us of falling rocks
so we didn't go too close to the 
cliffs.

Foundations and some walls remain from the old
ranches in the area. The Castolan Historic District
however was seriously burned by a fire that crossed
from the Mexican side of the river

We walked down to the Rio Grande, just a trickle
at this time of year. Scott as usual couldn't 
resist a dip - the water only came up to his
thighs but he didn't dare cross to the Mexican
side as big signs warned $5,000 fines.

We didn't think to bring bathing suits but that 
didn't stop Scott

The view of the Santa Elena canyon through which the Rio Grande runs, the left side is Mexico
and the right, the U.S.