Visiting the Big Bend Area, Terlingua, and Lajitas, TX – 3/30/19 to 4/12/19

Hi folks! This is one of my longer blog posts due to how much we saw/did in the Big Bend area and I thought it deserved more photos to support the post than in previous ones, so I just wanted to give you all a heads-up that it won’t be quite as quick a read as usual.

We left Marathon, TX (that I recently learned is pronounced “Marathin”) and headed a couple hours southwest to an RV park in the little town of Lajitas, which is right along the Rio Grande, that serves as the border between Texas and Mexico.  To the east of Lajitas, is Big Bend National Park.  To the west, is Big Bend Ranch State Park.  Both of these parks are massive in size, which is part of the reason that we made an early decision to stay for two weeks.  But before I get to that, I want to talk about the incredible change in landscape that happens during the drive from Marathon to Lajitas.  Most of the drive to Marathon was through wide open, flat, desert land, with some mountains sprinkled in along the drive.  After we left Marathon and as we started to get within an hour of Lajitas, while it was still desert-like, it turned into a drive through spectacular mountains and canyons that appear out of nowhere…both of which have an array of colors an shapes that tell a tale of tremendous volcanic activity that occurred millions of years ago.  This is what we love about the western United States and what we hope to continue to see as we move along on our journey!

As you may or may not remember, Karen is the “researcher” of our team.  She’s the one that hunts down the RV parks and other places at which we end up staying.  Well, she did a great job when she found the Maverick Ranch RV Park in Lajitas.  While it took us a while to get situated (we tried 3 different sites at the park on the first day there), we ended up with what we thought was one of the best sites in the park (check out the photos below). By the way, if you want to know what isn’t fun when RVing, it’s to get to a park, find a site, put the levelers down, the sides out, hook up your hoses and electricity… only to have to undo all of that and move to another site the same day.  In this case, it was of our own choosing, so we only have ourselves to blame for that!

So, what makes for a great site, by our standards?  First, is having a great view.  When we looked out the windows of the RV or sat outside, we had a spectacular mountain view.  Second, is a site that works really well for our dogs.  Meaning, ideally, we’re able to open the door of our RV to let the dogs out off leash and not have to worry that they’ll immediately be in someone else’s site or encounter other dogs.  At this site, there was a trail to take our dogs for a walk in the mountain area not more than 50 feet from our RV.  Third, is having a site with a large amount of space.  This is the equivalent of wanting a large yard around your house.  This site was one of the largest that we’ve experienced.  Fourth, is having a site that is very level.  Again, the site we had was a winner on this dimension.  Fifth (and I’ll stop here), is having some shade trees for when the RV awnings don’t provide enough shade.  Well, that’s where this site didn’t live up to the criteria – there were no trees on the site…and the temps did get into the middle 90s for a few days, so we didn’t spend a lot of time just hanging around outside of our RV on those days.

Speaking of heat, even though it was exceptionally dry here (humidity often at 15% or lower), because we’re so far south, the direct rays of the sun feel hotter, giving you an urgency to find shade from the sun.  It’s not the same kind of discomfort when it’s hot and humid, but it’s still not comfortable.  Luckily, the majority of our time here we had temps more in the 70s and 80s. However, we did have one really unusual day — it reached 100 degrees and there were 30-mph winds…talk about a blast furnace! Even at those temps, the nights would cool down to the 50s and 60s.

One of the first things that struck Karen and I as we were walking along the trails in the area near our RV was that we’d see a hill/mountain made of hard rock to one side of us, but then we’d see a hill/mountain of compacted grey ash on the other side of us.  Some of the photos I include in this post will show you what I mean.  We could walk on the compacted ash, but it was soft and we left footprints in it as we walked/climbed.  Because of its grey coloring and texture, it’s how we might imagine it would feel walking on the surface of the moon.  What really puzzled us was why the mini-mountains of ash weren’t either getting blown away by high winds or washed away by rain over the years.  We know that they don’t often get rain here, but it seemed like one strong thunderstorm would really impact them.  How could something that soft and movable still be standing when it’s supposed to be millions of years old?

The “flora” in this part of the country/desert is very unusual in shape and color.  We were fortunate to get here when the Ocotillo was blooming – a plant that can have many tall stalks that have an intense red-colored flower at the very end of it (see photo below).  We also got to see desert prickly pear cactus just about everywhere.  I was surprised that the flowers are mostly yellow because prickly pear juice/syrup is very red…so I assumed all prickly pear cactus would have red flowers, too.  What I have since learned is that there are many species of prickly pear, not all of which are red.  One of the other notable plants we saw was the Giant Dagger Yucca.  There’s an area in Big Bend National Park called “Dagger Flat”.  We drove our Honda CRV on miles of dirt/gravel roads until we got to a huge open area that had thousands of Dagger Yucca plants in bloom.  Again, we were lucky because we were catching them toward the end of their bloom, which appears to only happen once a year.

As much as I’d like to tell you about everything we did/saw in the two weeks in the Big Bend area, that would make for a way too long blog post, so I’ll just try to hit some highlights.  The first one that comes to mind is seeing and hiking into the Santa Elena Canyon through which the Rio Grande flows.  Being at the bottom of a canyon and looking up to see very high, sheer rock walls on either side of you is breathtaking.  When the bottom of the canyon also has a fairly good size river flowing through it that one can walk into, it’s that much cooler!

This is going to sound strange from two people who don’t golf, but the Lajitas Golf Resort, which was right across from our RV park and that has the Rio Grande flowing through it, was one of the most scenic golf courses we’ve ever seen.  Karen and I rented a golf cart and took a complete tour of all 18 holes.  I’ve included some photos in this post that hopefully give you an idea of the amazing scenery.  If you are a golfer, then this is a must visit for you!

Lest I forget, Karen is very big into wildlife, so she was pretty excited that we frequently got to see roadrunners.  For those of us who grew up seeing Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner cartoons, sadly, the real roadrunners just don’t live up to that hype…lol.  First of all, they’re a lot smaller than the roadrunner in the cartoon.  Second, I didn’t hear any go “Beep, beep!”.  And third, while they moved very quickly, they weren’t exactly a blur.

While the word “disappointed” is definitely a little too strong for what I’m about to say, Karen and I were somewhat disappointed that we didn’t see a single snake or scorpion in the two weeks that we were here.  I don’t know that we would have been thrilled to see either, but we were on the lookout so we would have liked to see one, perhaps.  I suspect that since we were here in what was still a relatively cooler time of the year, that is probably one of the reasons we didn’t run into any.  I’m sure that simply by the act of having written these last sentences, I have doomed us to some future wildlife encounter that will have me wishing I hadn’t said anything!

We took a half-day rafting trip down a section of the Rio Grande, which was enjoyable.  In our younger days, we might have opted for the full-day trip that would have had some stronger rapids and a little more rafting excitement, but we were looking for a trip that was more about taking in the scenery.  In addition, it was one of those days when the temp was supposed to get over 90, so we didn’t want to be stuck in a raft all day if we found the heat to be unbearable.

While the main attraction in the Big Bend area is the National Park, I have to say that Karen and I were pleasantly surprised by the State Park.  In fact, the drive through the State Park on Route 170 was one of the most beautiful drives we’ve ever taken…and you’re hearing this from a guy who doesn’t often like to say superlatives like “the best”, “the greatest”, “the most…”, so it is high praise from me, indeed.  I later learned that the drive has been rated among the top scenic drives in the country…and for good reason!  The State Park also has “Closed Canyon”, which Karen and I hiked with the dogs.  There were times that the passage through the canyon was so narrow that we could practically touch both walls at the same time.  The State Park also has an area called “The Hoodoos and Balancing Rock”, where there are several naturally occurring rock structures that look like large rocks balancing on smaller ones.  If you visit this area, visiting the State Park is another must!

On our last full day here, we went to the furthest eastern side of the National Park to check out the Boquillas Overlook and the Boquillas Canyon.  Boquillas is a small Mexican town along the Rio Grande which is a port of entry, so if we had brought our passports, we could have taken an extremely short rowboat/canoe ride across the Rio Grande into Mexico.  Since we had already hiked a couple of canyons earlier in the trip, we decided not to hike the Boquillas Canyon, but it’s on my list for the next time we’re here.  Instead we drove to a nearby place where we could walk a short trail to get to the Boquillas Hot Springs.  Right on the bank of the Rio Grande was an old concrete “pool” of sorts that was constantly being fed with 105-degree water from hot springs.  It was really nice to sit in there for a while and then go cool ourselves off by hanging our legs over the edge into the much cooler Rio Grande.

I almost forgot to mention the Terlingua Ghost town!  The town next to Lajitas is Terlingua.  Apparently, Terlingua was originally put on the map because it mined Cinnabar from which mercury could be extracted.  Liquid mercury is often referred to as Quicksilver.  Anyway, without going into a big history lesson, the mining eventually died off and Terlingua became a remote, sparsely-populated town.  There is one “funky” area of Terlingua known as Terlingua Ghost town, which features the Starlight Theater Restaurant & Saloon, as well as a few other cute/quirky places.  What has really put Terlingua back on the map is the nationally recognized chili-cookoff contest that is held there each November.  For any of you who have gone to a Hard Times Café in the MD area, you know that they have four types of chili from which you can choose…and perhaps you now remember that one of those types is called “Terlingua.”  If you look closely at their menu, you will see that it is named that to honor the famous chili that is made in Terlingua Ghost Town!  By the way, I had a cup of it and I can attest to the fact that it was really tasty!

This blog post wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t mention that Karen and I were fortunate enough to meet another couple who were our RV neighbors, John and Beverly, with whom we very much enjoyed talking, hanging out, and even flying drones.  I knew before we started RVing that we’d really enjoy visiting all sorts of cool and beautiful places.  What I didn’t know was that we’d be fortunate enough to also be meeting some very nice, interesting, and fun people along the way…and with whom we’d like to remain in contact as we all continue our respective journeys.

While I’m sure I’ve left out some things that were notable to us about our two weeks in the Big Bend area, I’ll close by telling you that if the other places that we are going to visit are even close to as beautiful and interesting as Big Bend is, then this will be a remarkable trip, indeed.  If you are looking to make a trip that will take you to a remote southwestern area that is less likely to be filled with tourists then some of the better known national parks, we highly recommend Big Bend!

Next stop — the Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Carlsbad Caverns!