Yet ANOTHER Big Bend Trip Report: Thanksgiving at BBNP, 2015

[Martinjmpr]

I wasn't going to post this now since there have been a plethora of BB trip reports lately but since someone asked on another thread I thought I'd post our report up.
.
INTRO:
.
I have wanted to go to Big Bend for years. Back in 2012, the wife and I almost chose to go down there for Thanksgiving but we decided to remodel our kitchen instead (although I love the new kitchen, Big Bend would have been more fun!)
.
Since my wife isn't a huge fan of Thanksgiving, she tries to get us out of the house for that week. Finally, this year with a new trailer (our T@B Clamshell, "Livia") and wanderlust in our veins, I suggested again that we go to Big Bend for Thanksgiving and Liz quickly agreed. I posted up something here on the boards and Frenchie, whom I knew from DE-III in Nevada and DE-IV in Mojave Preserve, asked if he and his lovely wife Karen could join us. I said "the more the merrier!" but let him know that this would not be a Desert Expedition style trip with lots of 4 wheeling and spending days at a time on rough roads. Our little trailer just wasn't up to that and neither was Liz (when I go on DE-type trips I go solo.)
.
On long trips we usually plan on driving all day so we can spend more time at our destination. Perhaps if we were retired it would be different, but since Liz and I both work, our time off is precious to us so we don't like to waste it. Because of this, we like to make reservations ahead of time. Yes, this does affect the ability to spontaneously decide where we want to camp, but generally when we're traveling we like to know where our destination is.
.
However, as those who have been to BBNP know, most of the campgrounds there are not reservable ahead of time. For that reason, we reserved our campgrounds at the halfway points of our trip down and back, but figured we'd "fly by the seat of our pants" once we got to Big Bend.
.
Saturday, Nov 21st was the day we were set to leave. Given the distance to big bend (nearly 900 miles) and the fact that Liz isn't a big fan of long car trips, I planned to make the trip in 2 days. Our first overnight would be at Brantley Lake State Park near Carlsbad, NM, where we would meet up with Frenchie and Karen, driving their Class A motorhome and pulling Frenchie's modified JKU.
.
DAY 1, Denver to Carlsbad NM: 11/21 (Saturday):
.
We knew there was a storm forecasted to hit the Front Range area of Colorado and the timing had it hitting on Friday night. Because of that, I made sure to hook up Livia the night before we left (I've hooked up the trailer in bad weather before, it's not much fun.) Sure enough, we woke up on Saturday and there were a couple inches of snow as well as snow-packed streets. It was still snowing when we pulled out to hit the interstate so I kept the 4runner in 4wd (this is exactly the reason I love the multi-mode transfer case that the 4th gen 4runners had.) It was intermittently snowy and foggy driving down I-25 but as soon as we crossed Monument Hill and dropped into Colorado Springs, the clouds parted and it was pretty much blue skies from there on out. Of course, truck and trailer were both filthy by this time but hey, stuff only stays clean if you don't use it, right?
.
The roads were perfectly clear and dry all the way down into New Mexico, even over Raton Pass which is nearly 8,000'. It continued to warm up as we departed the Interstate at Las Vegas (the other one) and headed down the 2 lane roads towards Carlsbad. The trip was pretty uneventful, driving through the High chapparel of New Mexico.
.
The one thing I don't like about traveling this time of year is how early the sun sets. Sure enough, the sun was down by 5pm and we were still traveling. We finally got into Brantley Lake around 7:30, both exhausted. We set up a "light camp" (i.e. no tables, awnings, etc) and as is my preference when we are just stopping for the night, I was able to park us level so that I didn't even have to unhook from the 4runner. It was cool but not cold and Liz and I took a nice little walk around the State park.
.
BTW, one cool thing about New Mexico state parks: If you reserve a campsite ahead of time, your park pass is included. I don't think there's any other state that does this. The campsite also had electrical hookups and showers, which we both appreciate.
.
Brantley Lake from our campsite:
.

.

.
While Brantley Lake looked nice, there was one thing that was not nice about it. I don't think I can I say this gently, but that part of New Mexico stinks. Literally stinks. We had passed by a big oil refinery in Roswell, but Roswell was at least 50 miles behind us so I found it hard to believe that was what we were smelling but it was the same kind of rancid, chemical odor that you get around a refinery. Well, it wasn't, but we didn't discover that until the next day.
.
TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Martinjmpr]

Day 2, Carlsbad to Study Butte, TX: 11/22 (Sunday)
.
It got down below freezing that night but we had our heat turned on which made for a nice cozy camper. The mornign was clear, dry and cold. I called Frenchie up and talked with him, he and Karen had parked in a primitive camping area just down the road (that Liz and I walked right by, not knowing they were there, the night before.) Walking up towards the showers, I ran into Karen and their dog, Sandi, coming to see us (I had never met Karen before.) We got cleaned up and had a quick bite for breakfast and then joined up with Karen and Frenchie to head down to Big Bend. A brief stop in Carlsbad was all we needed to gas up both vehicles and then head out.
.
It was on the way towards Pecos, TX on US 285 that I finally discovered what accounted for the stench we'd been smelling at Brantley Lake. The area Southeast of Carlsbad is covered with oil wells, going for miles, and many of them burn off excess gas.
.

.
My original plan had been to go through Balmorhea and Fort Davis on the way to Alpine, but in the haste of meeting up with Frenchie and going over our travel plans, I neglected to mention that and failed to check the map, so my GPS routed me all the way to Fort Stockton via US 285, and then down to Alpine via US 67. Not a bad route, and probably shorter time-wise than going through the mountains but not as scenic. Oh, well, chalk that up to poor planning I suppose.
.
I hadn't driven through West Texas in over 20 years but recalled that it wasn't particularly scenic. Well, that was true of the area along I-20 that I drove in 1993 but once we got south of Fort Stockton, it "prettied up" nicely with rolling hills and even some decent sized mountains (also the stinky oil facilities were left far behind us.) It was about lunchtime when we stopped again for gas in Alpine. We checked the map again and decided that since our intended campsite was at Cottonwood, on the West side of BBNP, we would be better off heading into the park via Terlingua instead of Marathon and Persimmon Gap.
.
It was getting close to 3:30 when we rolled into Study Butte and then on into the park. We stopped for the obligatory entrance picture:
.

.
Shortly past the sign we saw our first Ocotillo cactus, one of the many varieties we'd see on this trip:
.

.
I was nervous about finding a camping spot because I had heard that the park was a popular destination for Thanksgiving week. When we stopped at the gate, they said there were still 20 spaces left at Cottonwood, but every other campsite at the park was full including all of the back-country campsites! I drove nervously towards Cottonwood, which lies at the end of a 23 mile twisty (but very scenic) road.
.
We finally made it to Cottonwood and turned in, only to find that there were exactly two campsites available. But there was a problem: While our small rig would fit easily, getting Frenchie's class A and Jeep into one of these small sites was not going to be easy. He tried several times to back his rig in and get it completely off the road (as the camp host demanded) but it was pretty obvious that this wasn't going to work. So, we all had a pow-wow and decided we'd head back into Study Butte to see if there was a more suitable campground. We drove back out the same twisty scenic road and made it into Study Butte by around 5. There we saw the Big Bend Adventures RV Park right behind the gas station and it looked like it would work fine for us. Not quite the kind of site we'd originally planned on but on the plus side, with electricity and water available, it was going to be a bit more comfortable, and unlike the campgrounds in the park which were packed to bursting, this campground wasn't even half full, giving us room to move around and set up as far as we could from the highway. As it turned out, this was a great place to camp. Glad to be at our destination after two days of driving, Liz and I, and Frenchie and Karen, set to making our camps into a temporary home!
.

.

.
Liz likes to make custom "awnings" for our trip. Since we were so close to Mexico this was the one she made for this trip:
.

.
In contrast to the snow of Colorado and the cold of New Mexico, our campsite at Study Butte was warm and breezy, but not too windy, just perfect for a late November night!

 

[Martinjmpr]

Day 3, Boquillas Canyon, Hot Springs, Chisos Basin: 11/23 (Mon.)
.
We figured we'd start at the Panther Gap visitor center just to get an overview of the park and decide where to go from there. Around the visitor center is a nice display of the various plants that are common in the area including cacti of multiple types and these beautiful yellow flowers that look like Columbines:
.

.

.
After getting our bearings, we decided to go to Boquillas Canyon on the Rio Grande village side of the park.
.
Along the way we stopped at the Boquillas overlook, which overlooks the Mexican village of Boquillas. When we stopped there we saw the first of at least 3 "self service" souvenier stands:
.

.
The canyon itself was beautiful and a nice walk along the river.
.

.
We spent time talking to the Ranger there about the border crossers selling souveneirs, he told us that the Park frowns on the practice but doesn't put much effort into stopping it as it wouldn't be worth their time. The main concern of the rangers is the safety of the people in the park.
.
After this we had a nice picnic lunch at a shady spot in Rio Grande Village and then took a drive over to the hot springs. The springs were very nice but of course we didn't know you could go into them, and we didn't have our swimsuits. The ruins of the old resort were interesting and I think these were the only palm trees we saw in the whole park:
.

.
Since we still had some time, we then went up to the Chisos Basin area. Unfortunately, we got there near sunset and just as everything was closing up. Still, it's easy to see why Chisos Basin is such a popular part of the park, it's really very different from the rest of Big Bend, much more "mountain" than "desert."
.
Some of the views from Chisos Basin are impressive. This is looking West towards Terlingua and Study Butte:
.

.
It was too late to cook dinner by the time we got back to the campground and it was completely dark, so we just heated up some soup and planned the next day. This was one I'd really been looking forward to, we were going to do the entire River Road!

 

[Martinjmpr]

OK, picking this back up (sorry for the delay, life gets in the way...)
.
Day 4, Tuesday 11/24
.
We had a quick breakfast on the road, gassed up at the station that was right in front of our campground, and headed out to explore some dirt. OUr first turnoff, after entering the park, was on Old Maverick Rd. This is a well graded (though somewhat washboard-y) dirt road that took us down to the Rio Grande near Santa Elena Canyon, another scenic, sheer-walled canyon.
.

.
We passed the historic sites near Terlingua Abajo (mentioned in other trip reports) and took a short hike out to the Canyon itself.
.

.
We then turned back onto the same paved road that runs by the Cottonwood Campground. But we were only on pavement a short distance before we turned off onto our objective: The River Road! This is the dirt road that traverses the southern portion of the park from East to West. It's marked "4wd Required" but honestly, any decent high-clearance vehicle could make it easily in good weather (and the weather was perfect for us.)
Along the way we saw several abandoned cars. I swear you could do a photo essay just on the abandoned cars of Big Bend.
.

.

.
The River Road has a number of "spurs" at regular intervals, most of them go to the South towards the river. I was hoping there would be some nice overlooks of the river but unfortunately most of them simply descended down into the scrub brush and then ended at a primitive campsite. Even though the road runs along the general path of the river, there are lots of times when you can't see it through the brush. But you can see clear across it into Mexico and the impressive Mariscal range. At one point we looked across to a pretty spectacular looking "split" in the mountain (according to our book this is called "Smugglers Canyon"):
.

.
We stopped for lunch at an abandoned homestead (not the Johnson Ranch, that was later in the day and explored the area on foot. There were lots of wildflowers around.
.

.
We also tried to reach the river from the Gauging Station but this is what the scrub looks like as you approach the Rio Grande:
.

.
We stopped at the ruins of the Johnson Ranch, which are rather large. At one point, Frenchie picked up a slab of metal laying on the ground only to find this little fella!
.

.
Yes, it's a rattlesnake, a baby. We gingerly put the slab back down and decided to leave him be.
.
We passed through the Mariscal Mine area and took a few photos but I think the other BBNP trip reports have better ones.
.

.
When we finally got to the end, we drove quickly to the hot springs - we had brought our swimsuits this time! - and soaked in the pool for an hour or so (poor Frenchie had to babysit Sandi at the parking lot so it was just me, Liz and Karen.)
.
When we left to go back to camp, there was a gorgeous moonrise coming up over the reddening mountains. Another gorgous sunset in big bend!
.

.
TO BE CONTINUED...
.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Day 5

Day 5, Wednesday, 11/25
.
We decided that today was the day we'd go to Mexico. For those interested in taking the trip, the ferry runs Wednesday through Sunday, so since we only got to the park on Sunday night, this would have been our first opportunity.
.
We drove to the border crossing station which is located off the same road that goes to Boquillas canyon. The process was fairly simple, showed our passports and were given a briefing by the USBP agents on duty. Then we walked a short distance to the river, where we clambered onto a boat for the short ride across (at this point you could literally wade across the Rio Grande but I guess they want the tourists to stay dry.) Cost of the trip is (I believe) $5, US Cash, for both ways. Unfortunately, dogs aren't allowed to cross which means that, once again, Frenchie had to stay on the US side with Sandi.
.
Once Liz, Karen and I were across we were offered our choice of rides to the town of Boquillas (officially: Boquillas del Carmen) which is about 3/4 mile from the crossing point. We could pay for a ride in the back of a truck or on a horse or donkey, or walk. Since it was such a gorgeous day, we decided to walk. We were assigned a guide, a boy named Javier who was about 11 (and spoke excellent English) and we walked up to the town. We cleared Mexican customs and then went wandering through town.
.
The "Boquillas del Carmen Transit Authority":
.

.

.
There's not a lot to Boquillas. We asked Javier to show us his school and his church, which he was happy to do (even though it was Wednesday he wasn't in school until later in the day.) Afterwards we all went to lunch at one of the two restaurants in town. The "big" restaurant is called Jose Falcon's but we decided to go to the smaller one across the street. An excellent meal, even if we did pay "gringo prices", well worth it.
.

.
From there we continued wandering, taking photos and shopping. It was quite warm, probably in the low 80's, not bad for the end of November! Javier took us to meet his family and from there we walked back to the border crossing.
.
It was about 2:30 and with plenty of day left, we discussed what to do next. Frenchie thought it might be interesting to take the Old Ore Road to the North, so we headed that direction. He figured it wouldn't take us more than a couple of hours at most which would put us at the end of the road around 4:30, in time to head back to the campsite for dinner.
.
I know others here have posted more detailed pictures of the Old Ore road, suffice it to say the pictures don't do it justice. I do agree with the guidebook that it would probably be more scenic to do this one North-to-south rather than South-to-north the way we did it, because the ground slopes downwards to the South and offers some great vistas across the Rio Grande into Mexico. Still, I thought the Old Ore road was pretty scenic even running it the way we did.
.

.

We stopped at several locations along the road to get out and look around, and Liz took pictures of the odd-shaped cacti we saw everywhere.
.

.

.

.
And also these odd shells at the bottom of what was once a pond:
.

.
What's funny about the Old Ore road is that from the signs and the maps we figured it would be basically a dirt road, but as it turned out it was more "rugged" than the River Road. Since we didn't expect it to be this rough, we didn't air down, which was a mistake. There were even a couple of spots where, just as a precautionary measure, I switched to low range (more to keep the transmission cool than anything else.) Needless to say our "two hour tour" ended up taking us almost 4 hours by the time we stopped for pictures and sightseeing, and by the time we hit the pavement at the North end of the park, the sun was dipping down behind the Chisos Mountains, giving us another great Big Bend Sunset!
.

.

.
All in all, a great day, even though we were exhausted by the time we got back to the campsite. I think Liz and I just heated up a can of stew on the stove and called it a night!

 

[wngrog]

Thanks for posting. I never get enough BBNP

 

[Martinjmpr]

Day 6: Thanksgiving in Terlingua

Thursday, Nov 26 (Thanksgiving)

The long days in the car were getting a little tiresome, and the local café was putting on a Thanksgiving dinner for those of us who didn't want to cook, so we decided to stay close to Study Butte on Thursday.
.
First, Frenchie and I decided to make breakfast for the ladies.
.

.
Then after eating, we drove down the road just a few miles to Terlingua.
.
Now, Terlingua is definitely one of those places that's not like any other little town. It's really hard to explain but it's just - different. Our first stop was at the general store/tourist trap in the middle of town, but it didn't open until 10am so we wandered around a little further. We came across what we assumed was an old, abandoned hotel...
.

.
Only to find that not only was it not "abandoned" it was, in fact, open for business. We even talked with the couple that had stayed there the night before and they graciously let us tour their "rustic" accomodations (though at their request we didn't take pictures.) Certainly it would be a very unique place to stay if you wanted to stay in a motel.
.
Back at the general store, we found a sign that seemed...appropriate?
.

.
There are lots of odd things in and around Terlingua including this viaduct/architectural masterpiece:
.

.
This old mining elevator car...
.

.
And this melted engine, burned in an oil well explosion (that was extinguished by "Hellfighter" "Red" Adair) and put on display as a sort of "art piece":
.

.

.
Also more old cars including this mural-painted Crosley:
.

.

.
I don't really know much about Crosley's but this one appeared to have both 4wd AND 4 wheel steering!
.
There was also the cemetery, which was as unique and unusual as the rest of Terlingua.
.

.
All in all a great day capped off by a nice Thanksgiving dinner. Eating Thanksgiving dinner in your shorts with ~75 degree temps is pretty nice, I have to say!
.
Our last group picture before nightfall...
.

.
TO BE CONCLUDED...

 

[Martinjmpr]

Days 7 and 8, Friday 11/27 and Saturday 11/28

Alas, all good things must come to an end and so we packed up most of our stuff on Thursday night so we could get an early start on Friday, 11/27. Thursday night it was kind of gray and overcase, so it was the only night we were at Big Bend that we weren't treated to a nice sunset.
.
We departed Friday morning but instead of taking the shortest route straight North to Alpine, I wanted to take TX 170 Northwest towards Lajitas and Presidio, which would take us along the Southern edge of Big Bend Ranch State Park.
.
TX 170 is nothing short of amazing as it climbs into the mountains West of Big Bend. The scenery is breathtaking, to say the least:
.

.

.
We then rolled through Presidio and turned North towards Marfa. It was here that the weather took a very sudden and nasty turn, from warm and calm to icy winds blasting us from the North.
.
About 20 miles West of Marfa, we saw this aerostat, cranked down to avoid the nasty wind:
.

.
And another 30 miles or so on, near the town of Valentine, was the mandatory stop at Prada Marfa:
.

.
By the time we fueled up in Van Horn, the wind was howling and cold. We bundled up and pushed on North, to our overnight destination at Oliver Lee State Park near Alamogordo. We actually got into Alamogordo fairly early, around 3pm local time, which gave us some time to wander and explore the town. Unfortunately, it also gave a nasty weather system time to come in and by the time we got to our campsite it was cold, windy and raining intermittently.
.
It was kind of spooky driving into the park after dark, with clouds all around us and heavy fog, but we found our campsite and rolled into bed without unhooking from the 4runner.
.
Day 8, Saturday 11/28: It had cleared up by the time we woke up and I was hoping the worst of the weather had passed. We got through Alamogordo and headed North towards Carrizozo. It was cold and windy and we could see snow on either side of the road but the road itself was dry. Then near Carrizozo, our luck ran out and the road became a crown of slush and ice, getting worse by the mile. I put the 4runner in 4wd but even then every time we hit a ridge of snow the trailer wanted to pull us to one side or another. I finally slowed down to around 30 mph and white-knuckled it nearly 100 miles until we finally came out of the snow and ice near Pastura, just before we crossed I-40. By this time, finally, the sun had come out and the roads were dry.
.
When we stopped in Las Vegas for a late lunch, I saw that our trip through the snow had created weird "ice sculptures" on the trailer sides:
.

.
The rest of the trip back to Denver was uneventful. We got in late but that's why I planned for us to get back on Saturday so we would have Sunday to relax and clean up.
.
All in all it was a great trip, and a great way to spend Thanksgiving week. Of course, we really only touched the surface of what the Big Bend area has to offer, and even as we were pulling away I was scheming on how to get back there, to explore BBRSP and the other areas of BBNP that we had missed in our haste.

 

[smlobx]

Great report!
I lived in TX for 4 years and never went to the park.
I will go back.

 

[huachuca]

Thanks for the detailed report and awesome pictures. Although we've visited BB numerous times and experienced many of vistas shown in your photos, its always great to get someone else's perspective. I never tire of that place and hope to return later this year.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Great report!
I lived in TX for 4 years and never went to the park.
I will go back.

.

Thanks for the detailed report and awesome pictures. Although we've visited BB numerous times and experienced many of vistas shown in your photos, its always great to get someone else's perspective. I never tire of that place and hope to return later this year.

.
Thanks for the feedback! In the 4 days we were there we really only scratched the surface and of course we didn't see BBRSP at all. .
.
Two of the nicest things about BBNP/BBRSP, I think, is that first, it makes for a great "off season" destination for those who want to get their "overland camping" fix in mid-Winter when even Moab is still sketchy. December/January seems perfect there.
.
The second thing is that for those of you unfortunate enough to live in the Eastern half of the US, it's not as long of a drive to get there (and you don't have to face the prospect of driving through the Rocky Mountains in mid-Winter, which can be intimidating to those who have never done it.)
.
I'll definitely go back, not sure when but I will make it back. Right now I have a few more boxes to check on my "desert bucket list" including the Maze District of Canyonlands, Parashant National Monument, and the Chiricauha mountains of Arizona to name just a few.

 

[NitroExpress]

Glad you got to make it. Thanks for the trip report!