Big Bend Ranch State Park

January 26-30, 2019


Six years ago we drove the River Road from Presidio to Lajitas along the Rio Grande. It is considered one of the most scenic drives in the U.S. Our goal was Big Bend National Park and we passed the remote Beg Bend Ranch State Park on the route. It is a huge park barely accessible with a normal vehicle, and it's scattered remote campsites require 4-wheel drive and most need a high clearance vehicle. Not a place we could take the motorhome or the trailer. The national park was closed for this visit, so we did some research and discovered first come-first serve campsites off the River Road, so we thought we would try our luck. Most were designed for tenting or very small rv's or small trailers, but a few were designed for motorhomes or larger trailers.


We traveled south from Alpine and after reaching the town of Study Butte near the entrance to the national park, we turned west to connect with the River Road. In Lajitas we stopped at the state park visitor center. We signed up for one of four sites at the Upper Medera campground just off the River Road and on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande River. Campsites were not assigned, so you chose from whatever was empty. We already knew the two at the end of the road had the best view, so off we went on a twenty minute drive to reach the campground. One of the end ones was empty and we snagged what we thought was probably one of the best campsites in the whole park! It was easily accessible and had an amazing view of the river and the cliffs of Mexico on the other side.

Upper Madera campsite

Bedroom view

The Rio Grande with Mexico's 1,000-foot wall in the background.

The Rio Grande is mostly deep enough to float a canoe

 

"No Greg, don't even think about it!"

It was dry camping at it's best. We had no hookups, but a quiet site with an amazing view. We did our boondocking best to conserve water, our solar panels were working, and we had enough power to run the heat on occasion if we needed it. We extended our stay to 4 days to enjoy our spot before we felt the urge to dump our tanks and move on.

Purple prickly pear cactus

Looking up the Rio Grande canyon.

Mexico

One day we decided to explore the rest of the state park and Greg wanted to check out a trail for biking. We met a couple who was volunteering in the park and later talked to a ranger about the possibility of volunteering there next winter. She liked that Greg is a geologist, but it appeared that there wasn't any interpretive work available, just maintenance, which seemed to mean emptying trash cans and painting them and signs. On top of that, the nearest grocery was in Alpine, so figure a close to 200-mile round trip.


We moved on and drove the gravel road into the interior of the huge park. It wasn't too bad, until we drove back a rapidly deteriorating rocky road to try to reach the closest remote campsite near the entrance. Greg wanted to see how bad it was and whether we might be able to get the trailer in. Partway to the site we could see that it was occupied, so we stopped at a small turnoff and tailgated for lunch. It was quiet with a beautiful long range view over to Mexico. After eating, we realized that it was still going to be a long way to the interior visitor center and we hadn't started the trip early enough. Greg was tired of shaking up everything stored in our truck bed, so we turned back.

A cattle guard on the county road to the park interior

This trail to the closest interior campsite was not trailer-friendly!

Stopping for a picnic.

 

The main park road

A side road to the Arenosa group campsite along the Rio Grande

Looking up the Rio Grande from the top of the "Big Hill"

Our campsite from upriver. Tiny dot on the upper bluff!

 

The following day we drove the opposite direction on River Road and took a quick drive through the ghost town of Terlingua. After the quicksilver (mercury) mine closed down the town was abandoned and the few buildings were left to become ruins. Gradually adventuresome people returned when they realized they could boondock for free in the warm desert in the winter months. A few funky bars and stores sprung up. When we were there six years ago, it was just a small settlement with people boondocking here and there in the area. Apparently, National Geographic did a telecast on the area and now it has been discovered. There didn't appear to be anywhere to boondock, and lots of new buildings were springing up including vacation rentals and AirBnB listings. We drove on to nearby Study Butte and found a small Mexican restaurant for lunch.

Preparing for a long mountain bike ride up to an abandoned mercury mine.

 

Back at Upper Madera we spent an evening talking about full-timing with our neighbors on the next campsite. Jodi and Hallie had just started full-timing two months before, and had lots of questions. We enjoyed a fun happy hour sharing our experiences. We'll never be newbies again, but enjoyed being able to share a bit of what we have learned from our 6 ½ years on the road.

Our neighborhood javelina family.

 

We had one more stop to make before we left Texas, so on January 30^th we hitched up and drove east on the River Road back to dump tanks at the visitor center. We took the road north out of Study Butte to Alpine. Arriving at lunchtime we were excited to find CowDog open, so we stopped for a quick dog before driving the 20+ miles north out of Alpine to Ft. Davis.

Reaching Ft. Davis we drove down the short main street, out of town and up the mountain to Davis Mountains State Park. This was a park we stayed in six years ago and we settled in for a short two-night visit. We had hoped to go to a Star Party at the nearby McDonald Observatory, but arrived on the wrong day. We would be leaving too soon. Instead we got up early (for me!) and went back into town for a great breakfast at the old Ft Davis Drugstore where we dined on our last visit. Greg fit in a tough bike ride and by February 1^st we were finally back on the road, leaving Texas and heading for New Mexico!

Heading for Fort Davis

 Davis Mountains State Park Campsite