Big Bend National Park is in southwest Texas and includes the entire Chisos mountain range and a large swath of the Chihuahuan Desert. The Big Bend area of Texas derives its name from its location on the bend of the Rio Grande. Big Bend’s remoteness has created conditions for the best night sky viewing in the United States. There is 118 miles of shared border with Mexico.
A trip along the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive highlights the geologic splendor Big Bend is famous for, and offers many scenic overlooks and exhibits along the way. Sotol Vista, Mule Ears Overlook, and Tuff Canyon are all worthwhile stops.
Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive.
Chisos Mountains
Mule Ear Peaks
The Santa Elena Canyon trail is a 1.6 mile out and back hike along the Rio Grand.
The view from the Santa Elena Canyon Trail looking back towards the park.
Windows View Trail
Paisano Village RV Park was a private RV park about 4 miles from the entrance to Big Bend National Park. We were on the East side of the park which was fairly new. It had one bathroom and shower that was very clean. As there are only 10 sites on this side of the park it was never busy. There is only one grocery store in the area, so it is best to stock up before arrival. The town of Terlingua is 5 miles away. It has a few restaurants including the "must see" Starlite Theatre and a cemetery in the Ghost town. It was an old quicksilver mining town abandoned the the 1940's, now it has about 400 full time residents and plenty of hippies and hikers!
We did a jeep tour with Far Flung Adventures, our guide took us into the Terlingua Ranch area, where he showed us the different rock formations and plants of the desert.
Dean and Jeremy, our tour guide.
My view from the jeep.
The roads in Terlingua Ranch where we did the tour.
The mountains were formed millions of years ago. Christmas Mountain is in the backgound.
The volcanic ash is called Bentonite.
Ocotillo plant.
The different colors are formed by magma and volcanic ash.
There are people living out in the desert !
Kissing Rocks, they were apparently placed there during an eruption of nearby Maverick Mountain millions of years ago as they are geologically different to the other rocks in the area. It is said to be good luck to kiss in front of them.