Big Bend Ranch State Park Trip - Oct 2013

[YotaPilot]

This was my first fully self sufficient trip my wife in I took in my 2001 Tacoma I have been slowly building up for the last year or so. Living in Corpus Christi puts us pretty far from the usual adventure spots in the SW, but the Big Bend region is within a days drive, so we thought we'd give it a shot.

The original plan was to go to Big Bend National Park. I had the route planned with all the site we would see and campsite selections to bring to the ranger station. However, the government shutdown forced us to change those plans, so we audibled to the State Park. I did some research about the park and determined what sites I wanted to try and things to see. Big Bend Chat is a great resource as well as visitbigbend.com.

I'm not posting all of my pictures in this thread. If you wish to see more, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/77192624@N03/sets/72157636626799366/

Day 1 - Wednesday 09 October
So we packed up on a Wednesday evening and left Corpus Christi after my wife got off work. Our first stop be South LLano River state park where literally pitched the tent and went to sleep. After about a 4 hour drive, we arrived in the dark at 10:30PM brushed our teeth then turned in.

Day 2 - Thursday 10 October
Thursday saw an early morning rise before the sun came up. We knew we had about 6 hours of driving to go and wanted to arrive at Big Bend State Park with enough time to drive the roads during the day and set up camp before dark. We arrived in the border town of Presidio around 1:00PM, topped off on fuel then headed down the road to Ft. Leaton State Historic Site to get our backcountry camping permits. We decided to try Las Burras 3 based on a recommendation on Big Bend Chat. Las Burras 3 is supposed to have great sunsets and views into Mexico. The site was available so we reserved it for 2 nights.

As a side note, the ranger station only allowed us to reserve two nights at a time. For the other nights we had to go to the Sauceda Ranger Station in the middle of the park. Additionally I recommend picking up a Big Bend Ranch State Park Discovery Map. It's a 1:84000 scale map with contours at 160'. Not great for navigation, but better that nothing. It also gives distance breakdowns on the trail which help in finding you site. More on that later.

Once leaving the Ranger Station, we continued a short distance east on Hwy 170 to Casa Piedra Rd. This is where the pavement ends for your time in the park. We continued on this road following the signs for the park until entering the park proper. I took the obligatory pictures of the park entrance sign, but somehow lost them when changing some settings in my camera for my memory card.

We followed Main Park Rd until Oso Loop, then Las Burras Rd. Oso Loop is where is turns to a 4 Wheel Drive, High Clearance rd. The road was not to difficult, just bumpy and narrow with many bushes and cactus hanging into the road giving my truck a fair amount of desert pin-stripping. We made it to the campsite, after a short detour. We actually drove right past it without seeing it. That's where the distance markers on the map used in combination with the trip meter on the truck come in handy.

Las Burras Rd (the good section of road)

Upon arrival at the site I was a little disappointed with it. The "parking" spot was about 30 meters from the "camp site." Having a fair amount of glamping gear I was hoping to be able to set up camp right next to my truck. To explore some other options, I made a short foray off the marked trail and had my first "challenge" of the trip. I drove a little too close so one of the hardy desert bushes and heard a loud hissing noise. That noise was off course air rapidly escaping from my front passenger side tire. I quickly maneuvered the truck back on the trail and assessed the situation. I had a stick, a little thinner than my pinky punctured in the inner side wall of the tire. After some harsh scolding of myself for driving off the trail and knowing better than that, I decided to move to action. We would set up camp first, then if I still had light, would attempt to change the tire. That plan worked out. We got camp set up, I changed the tire (after some conflict with ants while trying to drop the spare), ate dinner, and enjoyed a nice sunset.

The OzTent at Las Burras 3

The OzTent Again. More like "awesome" tent.

Flat Tire

The culprit

High Lift Worked Great

Sunset

 

[YotaPilot]

Day 3 - Friday 11 October

Day three (Friday 11 October) started out with me wanting to tackle the flat tire. If I was unable to repair it, I didn't want to continue the trip sans spare. So that was the priority for the day. So I pulled out my puncture repair kit and got to work.

The hole - with the stick removed

The repair kit

Repair complete. I used two "noodles" doubled over.

Detail of the repair

While the repair set I ate some breakfast. Once I felt like it had been enough time to fully set up (I waited about 1 hour), I pumped the tire up to 35 psi using my trusty Extreme Outback compressor (awesome compressor. Highly recommend!) to see if the repair held. Everything looked ok. I put my ear near the hole and heard no air escaping. I decided to give it some time to see if it truly did hold, so we explored around the immediate vicinity of the camp.

Throughout Big Bend SP there are very cool washes from the rain. There was a small falls right next to the camp that would have been awesome to see with water flowing through it. My wife also spotted a very cool bug that I think is a walking stick.

The Walking Stick

Ants were everywhere

Looking down the dry "falls"

Birds Nest. Didn't see the inhabitants though

After returning from out short excursion I checked the repaired tire pressure and it was holding steady at 35 psi. I made the decision at that point to continue the trip, however, I would stay only on the easier trails.

We decided to break camp and head to the ranger station to get a new camp site. Other than the sunset, there wasn't too much we were impressed with at Las Burras 3. So we carefully drove back out Las Burras road the the main park road to the Ranger Station at Sauceda. I forgot to mention in the first post...I did air the tires down once we got on the main park road the first time. I brought them down to 20 psi and that helped a lot with the comfort driving on the bumpy dirt road at 25 mph.

We made it to the ranger station by noon and spent some time talking to the Rangers about good campsites that I could pull my truck into. They didn't know which ones specifically met my criteria. They did however have a book that a volunteer put together showing photos of all the campsites in the park. That helped greatly in my decision for my next site. I had heard good things about Fresno Canyon and knew that was the region I wanted to explore next. So we decided on Rincon 1 campsite for two nights. The rangers said the road down Fresno Canyon was good and had much better views than the Las Burras road. So with some hesitation due to my spare, I gave it a shot, telling myself if the road got bad I would turn back and try another site.

It turns out the Fresno Canyon road was great. It was much wider and smoother. The whole way from the trailhead to the campsite I was able to stay in 2 wheel drive and maintain speeds of 10-15 mph. Much better than Las Burras where I averaged 5 mph or less. It was much more fun driving it as well. A lot of the road is actually in the dry river bed on smooth sand that was a great driving. The views were amazing too.

Fresno Canyon Road

A little better detail of the road condition

One of the sites we definitely wanted to check out was "Manos Arriba." Can you guess why it's called Manos Arriba?

We arrived at Rincon 1 in late afternoon, set up camp, then relaxed for the rest of the day.

Pic of the campsite from a hill overlooking it.

 

[YotaPilot]

Day 4 - Saturday 12 October

Day 4 (Saturday 12 October) saw a great morning for pictures as the sun came up.

Sunrise over the "Flat Irons"

Our camp in the shadow of the hill

Another one of the "flat irons" experimenting with focal point.

After some breakfast, we decided to do a day hike to the abandoned Smith/Crawford Ranch site. If was a very easy hike following the riverbed the whole way, so very little chance of getting lost.

Some of the local fauna.

The ranch was built at it's location due to a nearby spring that flows year-around. So we headed there and sat in the shade of the trees (a rarity in the park) and ate some lunch before heading back to camp.

Butterflies enjoying the flowers around the spring

On the way back we got a nice view of the "flat irons" which on on the SW border of the Solitario.

We arrived back at camp in the mid afternoon. We were very thankful for the gazebo/shade shelter put in by the park service, although we did have the OzTent awning as well. We relaxed in the warmth the rest of the day. I took a shower using my solar shower, which felt great. My wife had used it the day before. While playing with my camera, I snapped a shot of the nice desert pinstripping on my truck courtesy of the local flora.

Towards the evening, some clouds starting moving in which made for a great sunset over Rincon Peak.

 

[YotaPilot]

Day 5 - Sunday 13 October and 6

Day 5 saw an early start to get packed up and get on the road. After some discussion, we decided we wanted to head back to Corpus Christi a day early and stop about half way. This would allow us to check out Caverns of Sonora and split up the 10 hour drive like we did on the way to the park.

One thing that was odd about the park was the time the sun came up. We set an alarm for 6:30 and it might as well have been midnight. After eating breakfast and breaking camp, we were on the trail by 7:30 and it was still necessary to use my headlights/driving light to adequately see. The drive out was just as fun as the drive in, only requiring 4WD once to get up a steep/loose part of the trail. As we were nearing the terminus, my wife spotted a wild burrow on an opposite ridge line.

He was pretty far away, and with the cloud cover, there wasn't a whole lot of light, so the pic is a little blurry.

We stopped by the ranger station again to drop off our trash and human waste. Speaking of that, the park is one where you much pack out your human waste, so be prepared for that if you ever go. While on the Main Park Rd heading back towards Presidio, I noticed a Road-Side sign that I didn't see on the way in. It was a location of more native american pictographs as well as spots where grinding stones were used.

While stopped I decided to take some pictures of my trusty steed, all dirty.

I need some jerry can holders.

Dirty Wheels and Tires

The Cooper Discover AT3 performed great. I am very pleased with these tires. Other than the sidewall puncture, which I blame myself, I never felt like I needed more tire. The 235/85R16 size is great. I get descent fuel economy vs bigger tires, they have great on road manners and the off road performance in Big Bend could not have been better. I highly recommend them.

So got back on the slab and started the 4 hour drive to Sonora, TX. In the town of Alpine, we passed Big Bend Brewing Company. I regret not stopping to sample the local flavor.

We arrived at Caverns of Sonora that afternoon and got set up with a camp site. The Park has two camping areas, tent and RV. We were the only people in the tent camping area which was nice. The park also has flushing toilets and free showers. We were able to get in on the last tour of the day. The tours are $20 per person and they only allow 6 people per tour. I think the tours go every 1.5 hours. $20 seemed like a lot at first, but it was well worth it. The cave is obsoletely amazing. I have toured other caves before, but nothing with formations like this. This was almost the highlight of the trip. Here are a few pics.

Following the tour, we heading back to our campsite for our last meal of the trip, Udon noodles with ****ake mushrooms. One of my favorites to eat and super easy to cook. There was rain in the forecast to I had the OzTent fully set up. That evening I captured the final photos of the trip. The next day was an uneventful drive from Sonora to Corpus Christi.

 

[roverrocks]

Great pictures but I would not want to wander out of your tent in the dark of night and take a right hand turn to go pee. Serious cactus injury.

 

[jruba]

This is a trip that i would love to do ,come on man keep the pictures flowing :luxhello:

 

[jruba]

need to get me one of those repair kits , you never know ! , how is the tire holding up ? are you keeping it as a spare ?

 

[Quest4ADV]

Sunset

Awesome sky that night. Love the pic and story. Keep it up, that's a place on my bucket list!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[YotaPilot]

need to get me one of those repair kits , you never know ! , how is the tire holding up ? are you keeping it as a spare ?

The tire held pressure fine, but I did not drive on it. I picked up a new one today a discount tire. It only cost me $38 with the prorated warranty. I don't want to mess with a sidewall picture.

 

[kevint]

Great report.

 

[mtnbike28]

Great report! Thanks for sharing!

 

[carrelc]

Nice photos. Looks like you had fun. I think you followed us in on the Oso Loop if you were there October 12th. White FJ and Ford 4x4 Expedition Van? We had a silver pickup behind us for a while. We stayed at Guale 2 which is an amazing campsite. I'll post a link to my website with photos. We had planned to visit the National Park too. The State park is more technical than the National in terms of 4 wheeling, but the national park has more interesting scenery. If you look at my website under ghost towns, you can see some of what's at the NP.

 

[carrelc]

Great pictures but I would not want to wander out of your tent in the dark of night and take a right hand turn to go pee. Serious cactus injury.

Yes, I found 5 3" cactus thorns with my left foot. 3 of them in my big toe. Nothing like bleeding all over you sleeping bag at 3 in the morning

 

[mep1811]

Great trip and write up !

 

[WeeJeep2]

Great report and photos. We've been exploring our way around the park for the last several years doing long weekend trips. Haven't made it to the Las Burras sites yet but it is on the list. Know what you mean about having to carry stuff to the actual camp sites. Since we run with a trailer we just occupy the parking area in front of the site and don't mess with the pad area and shelter. Photo of Rincon 2 from last year.

If you found the side road out of Fresno Canyon to the Rincon sites you were getting the hang of navigating the park. It wasn't marked well when we went and there weren't many tracks to follow up out of the wash.