Big Bend National Park
Big Bend National Park is huge. It is divided into three major areas: Westside, Rio Grande Village (Eastside), Chisos Mountains. We were able to spend time and hike in each area. Like most of the larger NPs, there is a fare amount of time spent driving, but the beautiful landscapes make it so worth it.
Big Bend Sunrise
We stayed two nights in Alpine which meant that we drove about two hours into the national park each morning…and back to Alpine one of those nights. The third night, we were able to get a room at the Chisos Mountain Lodge which is inside the park and saved us some driving. The good thing about driving into the park early in the morning is that we saw some amazing West Texas sunrises. Below shows the sun’s progression on January 13, 2024.
The Westside
Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive
If a national park has a scenic drive, we usually do the drive first thing to help us get the lay of the land. This drive was about 30 miles long and had lots of lookouts, hikes, and points of interest. The drive began at the Chisos Mountains and ended at Santa Elena Canyon.
Chisos Mountains
The Chisos Mountains are in the center of the NP and probably the most visited section of the park. This is the location for the lodge, restaurant, camp store, and camping area.
Mule Ears
Mule Ears is a popular lookout along the scenic drive. We thought the name was funny since we have a similar formation in Steamboat, called Rabbit Ears.
In the Westside region of the park, the Rio Grande is bordered by a long and very tall rock cliff creating a natural wall. Toward the southern end of the wall is Santa Elena Canyon. We hiked up and into this canyon for about two miles and saw some beautiful canyon reflections. Below is a short video showing part of our hike.
Flora & Fauna
Throughout Big Bend, we saw so many varieties of plants…most requiring little water. However, we hiked into a desert oasis with a live running spring and even found a palm tree. The animals were not quite so abundant because of the lack of water, but we got a few pics. Our last morning drive out of the park we saw a small herd of deer, three young stags that were not together, and a pack of coyotes. All were either on or close to the road. We didn’t get any pics, but we nearly ran them over.
Who knew there were so many varieties of prickly pear?
Rio Grande Village (Eastside)
This part of the park is furthest southeast. There is a small Mexican village, Boquillas, across the river that some people hike to, but we passed. Instead, we hiked the 1.5 mile Boquillas Canyon Trail. Unlike Santa Elena Canyon, this hike was down at the water’s edge. The most interesting things about this hike were the little “shops” along the hike set up by the Boquillas residents selling crafts…and tamales. The shops were generally unattended honor system ($10), so they left a note and a lockbox for payment. We were previously told by a park ranger that if we saw a man on horseback selling tamales along the trail, to buy some because they were very good. We did see that man on horseback, so we bought six tamales and four strawberry empanadas. Against our better judgement, we had this “street” food for lunch and it hit the spot after the hike.
The Chisos Mountains
Casa Grande and The Window
The Chisos Mountain section is a pine basin surrounded by mountains. It is unlike any other place in the park and we found ourselves happy to see trees again. There are two main landmarks in this section. Casa Grande at the south end and The Window at the north end. Both are very photogenic.
Casa Grande
We hiked the two mile Chisos Basin Loop Trail which was more challenging than expected because it started at an altitude of 5000 and climbed another 1000. As the photos show, we always had Casa Grande in our view.
The Window
Like Casa Granda, The Window can be seen from almost anywhere in this section. We had already taken several hikes this day, so we opted for The Window View Trail (.5 mile) versus the The Window Trail ( 5 miles). Sunsets are also pretty great in Big Bend and this one did not disappoint.
The view out our balcony at Chisos Lodge. Happy hour (with a makeshift table) after a long day of hiking followed by a beautiful moonrise.
Dinner our last night at Chisos Lodge with the sun going behind the mountain.
The Stars at Night Are Big and Bright…
After dinner when it was starting to get dark, we hiked .5 mile to the campground to see if I could find the campsite where my family camped when I was 14. I think we found it, but it was getting dark so we headed back to the lodge. Along the way, I took this photo but it looked completely black on my phone. After we got home, I played with the lighting to finally see the silhouette of Casa Grande, but was surprised to also see the Orion constellation right above it. What a day…and night!
