Exploring Big Bend Natinal Park

The eighty-mile, two-lane approach to Big Bend National Park gives little hint of the scenic wonders hidden beyond the endless expanse of yucca and creosote bushes. The arid landscape looks as inhospitable now as it did one hundred and fifty years ago when General Sheridan, fresh from the Civil War, said that if he owned hell and Texas, he'd live in hell and rent out Texas. But first impressions can be deceiving.

With crimson sunsets, night skies overflowing with stars, and mountain-desert vistas, the most remote point in Texas enchants even the most skeptical visitors.

Big Bend National Park encompasses one thousand two hundred square miles of the most rugged country in North America. Including adjacent preserved areas, one million two hundred and fifty thousand acres of untamed wilderness stretch for one hundred and fifty miles along the Rio Grande. The great horseshoe curve, or "Big Bend," in the river embraces a majestic mountain range, cuts three spectacular canyons with one thousand five hundred-foot walls, and creates a green ribbon of life in the parched desert. The combination of horizon-to-horizon panoramas, mile-high mountain peaks, hundreds of miles of back roads and hiking trails, and more species of birds and cacti than any other national park make Big Bend a global treasure.

I first made my long journey to Big Bend as a child, when the closest ice to the park was eighty miles from the entrance and few of the roads were paved. Though considerably more visitor-friendly now, with motels, restaurants, stores and campgrounds, the park is still as rugged as ever. Just hike a quarter mile from any trail head and you'll own the desert.

The jagged silhouette of the Chisos Mountains dominates the skyline from any locale in the park. With peaks that exceed seven thousand eight hundred feet and cliffs that drop steeply to the desert floor, the mountains create a biological island of moisture and moderate temperature surrounded by a thirsty desert. Plants and animals which disappeared from the desert floor ten thousand years ago, when the Ice Age ended, still thrive at the higher elevations. Dense oak forests, ponderosa pines, juniper-madrone woodlands and even quaking aspens grow on the protected slopes. Black bears, cougars, rare birds and a distinct sub-species of white-tailed deer call the mountain oasis home.

Visitors to the Chisos Mountains find all the comforts of home in the Basin, a bowl-like depression surrounded by lofty peaks. Trails lead to Lost Mine peak, a four and eight tenths-mile, round trip rated as a "medium difficulty" hike, and the Window, a five and two tenths-mile round trip through a wooded canyon to a narrow gorge with a precipitous pour-off into the desert. Longer, more rigorous trails lead to the South Rim with views into distant Mexico, the Boot (a figurative rock formation), and canyons harboring the rare Colima warbler.

After a day of exploring, one visitor sipped iced tea on the porch of his motel room and watched the sun slide into the notch of the Window. As the evening turned scarlet, he said "I've seen sights around the world, but it just doesn't get any better than this."

The expansive desert and mountain vistas are impressive, but it was the spectacular canyons of the Rio Grande that first attracted conservationists' attention. In 1933, the State of Texas recognized the uniqueness of Boquillas, Mariscal and Santa Elena Canyons and established Texas Canyons State Park. The fame of Big Bend spread, and with private donations and state funds, Texas purchased land for a larger park. In 1944, the state deeded the park to the federal government as a gift from the people of Texas. Texas recently established Big Bend Ranch State Park, which preserves an additional two hundred and fifty thousand acres near the national park.

The queen of the three canyons, Santa Elena, borders the western edge of the national park. Here, the Rio Grande dissects Mesa de Anguilla like a giant cleaver. The sheer walls rise one thousand five hundred feet above the muddy river. A one and seven tenths-mile round-trip trail leads into the canyon, where the water spans wall to wall. The flute-like trill of canyon wrens accompanies hikers while peregrine falcons swoop overhead from shadowed cliffs.

Boquillas Canyon borders the eastern edge of the park. The jungle-like growth of river cane and mesquite trees along the flood plane shades the camping facilities at Rio Grande Village. You can explore the nature and hiking trails or take a rowboat ferry to Boquillas, a tiny village across the river, in Mexico.

The adobe houses of Boquillas turn crimson in the evening sun. We take the ferry across the river and walk the dusty quarter mile into the one-street town. Along the way, children and old men sell exquisite feldspar crystals with colors like the summer sky. They offer to let us ride their burros. We stop in the cantina and order a plate of tacos. "Sin carne," without meat, I request. "Carne?" the woman says as though I'm suggesting something unreasonable. "We only have beans."

Vast worlds reside within the universe that exists just beyond our daily routine, worlds where the beauty of a landscape is more nourishing than a hundred trips to the mall, and worlds where meat tacos are as unlikely as a lotto jackpot. A trip to Big Bend offers the discovery of vast new landscapes, both outer and inner.

Maps, Brochures and Trail Guides
Contact the park at 1-915-477-2251. Stop at the Visitor Center at Panther Junction when you arrive to check for information; to review ranger program schedules, road, trail and weather conditions; and to see the exhibits.

Accommodations
Chisos Mountain Lodge, 1-915-477-2291, located in the Basin. Reservations are strongly advised. The park receives the highest visitation during spring break (late March), Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years holidays, with campgrounds and lodging at capacity. The park has three campgrounds and does not accept reservations. The Basin in the Chisos Mountains has tent and RV camping with showers and complete visitor concessions nearby. Rio Grande Village, near Boquillas Canyon, offers tent and RV sites, showers, a store and gasoline. Cottonwood Campground at Santa Elena Canyon has water, a store and gasoline. Primitive camping in designated locations is allowed with a permit.

Seasons
Depending on fall rains, wildflowers begin blooming in March and cacti in April. By mid-April, temperatures are often in the nineties and over one hundred degrees Fahrenheit during the summer. It is ten degrees cooler in the Basin than on the Rio Grande. Thanksgiving through the New Years holidays is a popular time, when temperatures are moderate, though cold fronts sometimes sweep through with freezing weather.