Curvatures of Big Bend - ROF - November 2016

[Luckytibbs]

This was a great adventure for the group which considers themselves "Old Farts". You can tell we don't take ourselves seriously, too much of that going on anyway.

We started our adventure in Marathon Texas, all meeting up at the Marathon Motel and RV Park.




Our first day, we traveled to Big Bend's Old Ore Road. It used to be the road traveled when shipping Ore from Boquillas area to Marathon Texas. We stopped at some Tinajas which are just natural rock basins that hold the water for wildlife. The road was rough but not too bad.




We traveled the Black Gap Road which was the roughest but again, it was not bad. There were just some eroded parts due to the rain and it not being maintained. There is a step, about 2 feet, but we all made it through with no problems.




We visited the Hot Springs and saw some Mexican wares for sale.





We traveled the River Road from East to West, slow going because of all the natural drainage and could easily be impassable after some rains due to the mud and sand. But we stopped at Johnson Ranch for some aviation history, ruins and grave sites. The sheer magnitude of hard living, Indians marching through and utter isolation really comes alive when you are out there.




We then went to Santa Elena Canyon and Hiked the canyon.



After the National Park we visited Terlingua, Lajitas then stayed a couple of days in the State Park. We camped at their Arenosa Camp right along the river and it was fantastic. Got rained on but it was beautiful weather.




These are some of my pictures, I'll let the other members of the group post their pictures as we went on after even this! This was a great trip, great people, very interesting country. You get the feeling of the prehistoric when you are in Big Bend, and you can almost see the dinosaurs roaming about.

 

[Ace Brown]

Amazing report on an amazing trip. For those not with us you may wonder why I used the same adjective twice. Those on the trip will probably just smile. Some one mentioned how cool it was that 11 people got along so well. Several were strangers before the trip but all were friends by the end. Most ROF trips I have been on there was only one dog present, my Kenda, but this trip had a whopping 7. They needed a couple of adjustments to encourage getting along.

We did have very cooperative weather with rain only one night, but luckily we were beyond the potential muddy sections of the river road. We met a volunteer ranger who was amazed we all got through that road with no issues. I believe it would have been much different if we had to traverse that section after the rain.

Frenchie has a long tradition of doing a big pot of "4x4 goulash" on these trips. Everyone dumps something in a big pot which is stirred with care. Enjoyed by all, in fact I dined on the remainder for several more days. I gained 7 lbs on this trip but much cervesa contributed to that.

We had four off-road trailers on the trip and an F-250 with FWC slide-in camper, but all handled the rough stuff with ease and there were no vehicle issues.

Last day some of us went to the Carlsbad Zoo and Gardens while some toured the Caverns.

Thanks again to Debbie and Frenchie for getting this trip organized, they even went so far as prerunning in the sweltering heat of August.

(Cant get photos to load, try again later, but most are already on the trip planning thread).

 

[gwittman]

I am not ready to post all the photos that I want to show but here is one of our whole group minus a few dogs.
.

 

[Ace Brown]

Some of the Big Bend crew expressed interest in traveling to Baja this winter. Two trips have been posted in the Expedition and Overlanding North America section so you have choices. Both start right after Christmas so check them out and sign up ASAP if you want to get onboard.

 

[Luckytibbs]

This was a great Trip, and thank you Ace for that "Amazing" write up! Hahahaha.

 

[gwittman]

Now that I have sorted through my pictures, I can share some of them.
.
This is the first good view of the Big Bend area. I don't think this is actually in the National Park.

.
This is a prominent landmark in the area called Nugent Mountain. I think it is still outside the National Park.

.
This is on our way to Black Gap which can be a very rough road. It decided to be good to us with only a few slightly rough spots.

.
Here is a shot of a Mercury mining and processing area. It was a bustling area at one time.

.
This is Mule Ears in the National Park.
.

.
This is inside Santa Elena, which is where the Rio Grade cuts though the mountain. The walls are about 1,500 ft high.

 

[Ace Brown]

Nice pics Gary. Especially the canyon.

 

[gwittman]

Here are some more shots of the second half of the trip.
.
This is Luna's Jacal. Gilberto Luna is said to have lived here all his life and he lived to be 108 years old. I guess that makes him an honorary super Ol Fart. He raised many children there and apparently had many different wives.

After some research into his history, I found that meant he would have lived there when the Comanche used the area along Alamo Creek as part of their War Trail on their raids from Mexico to the US. Some say he got along well with the Comanche. According to one of his grandsons, he did not cross the Rio Grande to farm that area until 1901. That was well after the Comanche Raids. So, it is a good story about him being friends with the Comanche but probably not true.
.
Here is a view of the Rio Grande flowing through a part of the Big Bend State Park.

.
Here is a shot of part of the restored area of Fort Davis. It was an important military post for protection of the emigrants from the Indians. Most if not all of the soldiers were black. Of course, the Officers were white. At least one young black Officer was assigned there but was booted out of the Army soon on some trumped up charges.

.
This is one of the pictures I took at the Living Zoo and Gardens State Park near Carlsbad, NM. I didn't see the turtle on the right until after I took the picture.

.
Ace was right about the super-super moon not appearing all that much larger at moonrise. However, later that night when it was higher in the sky, it seemed a lot larger and brighter than normal.

.
A fitting end to my trip was a beautiful super moonset the last morning.

 

[Ace Brown]

I was just re-reading the Great Bend story in the Summer 16 issue of Overland Journal and noticed something I would have liked to do. They described the only US/MX border crossing that is done by rowboat. The town of Boquillos del Carmen on the Mexican side sounds like a neat stop for a taco y cervesa.

 

[XJINTX]

Ace, I too wanted to go to Bos Quitos (sp?) but alas for some reason only open Wednesday through weekend I say come on back to TX after Baja and we will go down for a visit

 

[Ace Brown]

Ace, I too wanted to go to Bos Quitos (sp?) but alas for some reason only open Wednesday through weekend I say come on back to TX after Baja and we will go down for a visit

That would be a long detour but I would like to get down there again sometime. Thanks amigo.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Great writeup! That is a fantastic part of the country and I can't wait to get back!
.
As far as Boquillas goes, yes, it's a fun little day trip. $5 to cross on the rowboat (though this time of the year you could pretty much roll up your pants and wade across.) I'm assuming we got charged "gringo prices" for our meal but it was still very good.
.
One drawback, for those of you traveling with dogs: You can't take them across the border and you can't leave them in your vehicle, so if you want to do the Boquillas crossing you have to make some arrangements for your pets. I think there may be a place to board dogs in Study Butte or Terlingua, but I'm not sure. Otherwise you might have to leave them in Alpine or Marathon.

 

[Ace Brown]

Well we could always do two shifts; one shift does dog sitting while the other goes border jumping, then swap duties. Not all would want to cross anyway; some may not have their passports.

 

[20DYNAMITE07]

Beautiful photos from what looks to be a great trip! Thanks for sharing!