Paul and I love this area of Texas, and have been here several times. Big Bend is one of my favorite national parks- but this time, we came for something else- Big Bend Ranch State Park. We chose to stay at a resort that is closer to the state park than the national park. It has a pool, fitness room and restaurants. I guess part of the reason I have been choosing resort type places is because its so hot outside, we need things to do besides hike.
Instead, we took a short ride along the Rio Grande, enjoying the scenery.
Up early the next day we headed into the park. One of the things I noticed on the bone jarring ride down the dirt road, was a veritable forest of Ocotillo. We are used to seeing one or two of these plants, but this was thousands of them. And there were “babies”, which we rarely see anywhere.
We stopped at the ranger station to get the scoop on what we should do, and she recommended Cinco Tinajas Trail, about 3 miles round trip.
A tinaja is basically a natural basin with water in it. We hiked as far along as we could without having to go IN the water, then headed up the side, to look down into the chasm.
Further along the trail we came upon a red tailed hawk. It was really neat to see the mockingbird dove bomb the hawk repeatedly. He must have been near the bird’s nest but he sure didn’t seem to take the attack seriously.
He didn’t seem to care about us much either, showing his apparent disdain by ignoring us.
It was already getting quite warm by the time we finished that hike, so we elected to pass on the second one we were going to do, and just drove around the park, having decided that Big Bend Ranch State Park would be a One Day and Done kind of park.
On the way back to the rig, we stopped to do a short hike into Closed Canyon. The walls of the canyon are so high, its partly in the shade, making it cooler in the canyon. However, it was 102* outside, and one of us thought that was a little too warm to venture very far into the canyon, so we took a peek, and headed back out.
Being gluttons for punishment, we were up and out the door by daybreak the next day, hiking up a hill adjacent to the RV park.
It was 4 miles round trip, giving us views of the surrounding area and the Rio Grande.
We were done early enough to spend some time in the pool before heading to nearby Study Butte for the 4th of July parade.
On the drive there, it became increasingly clear that there wasn’t going to be a parade, but we still had a great time watching the storm come through.
Not to be deterred, the following day we once again headed to Study Butte for the postponed parade, but it was not meant to be…another storm came through the area, and the parade was canceled again.
This time we skedaddled fast enough to make it to our favorite restaurant just ahead of the crowd. Starlight Theater has excellent food, and live entertainment most nights. In fact, we ate here twice on this trip.
Our final day in the area we headed to Big Bend National Park. Before we went, I checked a hiking map to see if there were any interesting trails that we hadn’t hiked yet. I didn’t think there were, and I was right. We have hiked most of the trails that are under 15 miles…some of them 2-3 times. So, I picked my favorite trail, and that’s what we hiked- Lost Mine Trail.
On our way in to the park we were kind of happy to see the cloud cover hanging over the Chisos Basin. Clouds would make the hike much cooler….as long as they cleared before we got to the top.
Luckily they did, and we were able to enjoy the fantastic views at the summit.
Once our stay at Big Bend was over, we headed to El Paso to see Paul’s mom.
