Episode 7 | BIG BEND
BIG BEND | May 12th to ….
Welcome back to TheMillennialGuide.To! Thanks so much for joining us 🤩
This is post #8 of our Cross-Country Road Trip. If you haven’t yet, check out the beginning of the story at “THE PROLOGUE” here.
Long Story Short
We spent 3 nights in Big Bend National Park! The first two nights at the Rio Grande Village Campground on the East side of the park, and our last night camping in backcountry in Ocotillo Grove on the West side of the park. Our favorite hikes were the Boquillas Canyon Trail, The Nature Trail (near the Rio Grande Village Campsite - and gorgeous for sunset!), and the Santa Elena Canyon Trail.
Short Story Long
Day 1
We left San Antonio around 8am to get on the road early because we knew we had a big drive ahead of us. San Antonio to Big Bend National Park is approx. an 8 hour car-ride. We try to take 1.5 hour driving shifts so neither of us get too exhausted, but that always adds on a couple more hours.
We stopped off in Marathon, the last little town before you get into Big Bend. We went to The French Grocer, which was a super cute and local cafe and grocery with everything you can imagine! They even had vegan treats! We got a coffee, stretched our legs, and continued on our journey!
Once we drove into Big Bend - first place we went to was Panther Junction. This the main hub in the park - you can fill up on gas here, fill up your water jugs (you can fill up water at other spots in the park too), and this is also where you can talk to the rangers and ask all your questions and book backcountry campsites. Once we drove in, we got our official Big Bend National Park Map and asked if there were any things we should try to do before the end of the day. The ranger told us to do the Boquillas Canyon Trail and the Village Nature Trail near our campsite - the Rio Grande Village Campground.
Rio Grande Village Campground
We drove on over from Panther Junction — which for time-sake takes approx. 45 minutes in the car. It’s a BIG park. We originally wanted to stay at the Cottonwood Campground due to its proximity to Santa Elena Campground but it was closed due to Covid. But no fear! The Rio Grand Village CG was amazing. A bit windy, but that was normal for early May. After we set up camp, we put on our hiking boots and drove to the Boquillas Canyon Trailhead - only a 5 minute drive from our campsite but a bit too far/too hot to walk to.
The Boquillas Canyon Trail was great! It would be considered an easy - moderate hike. We went around 5pm so though the sun was out it wasn’t tooooo hot. And what was even better, we were the only ones on the hike! There were lots of horses and donkeys on the trail - who crossed the river from the neighboring farm. Also how cool - across the river is Mexico! Signs say do not swim because of strong currents which we could definitely tell just from how fast the water was moving.
The Canyon was stunning. We were ooh-ing and aah-ing at the rock formations and the color of the Rio Grande River. And we kept saying - wow this is so amazing, I don’t know what else will top it! Let’s just say that…as our road trip continued, we also continued to see incredible nature! Also what is super cool to know about these hikes - is that before you start the hike, at the start of the trailhead, there is a collection of beautiful Mexican artisanal pieces - like mugs, bracelets, etc. These artists leave a donation cup and have the prices taped on each of the items. Def. bring cash if you can to support these local artists!
After the Boquillas Canyon trail, we went back to camp, made dinner (which took forever tbh because the wind was so strong!) and then went for an evening walk on the ranger suggested Village Nature Trail.
The Village Nature Trail is connected to the Rio Grande Village Campground so it’s super easy and accessible. The entrance is close to the Group Campsites. And it truly is gorgeous to do at sunset. You walk through marshes, up a hill, and you get views over the whole valley. It was just beautiful. No words really!
On our way back, there were more artisan pieces, including some beautiful wooden walking sticks. We bought them at $10 each. They were super useful later on in our cross-country journey for other hikes we went on.
We then went back to camp and slept somewhat soundly - lots of coyotes were out and about and were loud.
Day 2
We started our day with coffee and a makeshift breakfast and then we drove to Panther Junction to fill up on gas and get in line for once the rangers got their to register to camp in the Backwoods!
We were only second in line so yay. We were able to secure a Backcountry Camp spot in an area called Ocotillo Grove - this campsite is accessible by all cars we in our opinion - it def is bumpy but you don’t have to worry about clearance! We have a Honda CRV with AWD and our car (named Gloria) was okay. The backcountry campsites further down this backroad DEFINITELY need high-clearance and 4x4 wheels. The rangers were very helpful with this information.
After securing the campsite for our 3rd night, we headed off for the Ross-Maxwell scenic drive which leads us to Santa Elena Canyon. There are MANY cool spots to stop along the way.
Ross-Maxwell Scenic Drive Favorites:
Chihuahuas Desert Landscape
Sam Nail Ranch - nice quick walk around the old property
Homer Wilson Ranch - didn’t walk down to the ranch, but there’s a lookout with a history/info plaque
Sotol Vista - pretty!
Mule Ears Overlook - cute!
Tuff Canyon - cool colors
Castolon - camp store is here if you need snacks
Santa Elena - the grand finale
All of these stops on the Scenic Drive were great - you can feel out which parts you want to hike versus which parts you just want to do the lookout. All of it is beautiful. However, once you get to Castolon and can see the massive rock wall that is Santa Elena Canyon - it will take your breath away. It feels like Game of Thrones with the North Wall (except this version is GOT dealing with climate change)!
The Santa Elena Canyon Trail was definitely the most crowded hike we had been on. Since there hadn’t been much rain at the time, at the end of the trail you were actually able to take off your shoes and walk in the riverbed. We might’ve walked into Mexico technically (but that’s just between us). I keep using the words beautiful, remarkable, amazing when really - no words can do this canyon justice. It’s a must see and I hope everyone everywhere gets a chance to go on this epic hike!
On our way back to camp, we stopped at Castolon for a bathroom break and got some stickers for our handy water jug. The stickers are coming together!
Once we got back to camp, we made dinner, went to walk the Nature Trail one last time before heading to our Backcountry site the next day and had a beautiful mellow evening under the stars. This night the coyotes were more quiet thank goodness.
Day 3
We woke up to the sounds of horses neighing. More animals had come to the campgrounds from the neighboring farm. Again, we started our morning with coffee, packed up camp, and then tried to see if we could do the Daniels Ranch Trail - but sadly it was closed due to Covid. This trail leads to hot springs by the river which were also closed. So bummed we couldn’t take a hot spring soak here but hopefully next time.
First stop of the day was filling up on gas again - our tank wasn’t empty - it just really is the only gas you can get in the park. We didn’t want to risk anything depending on how far we ventured on Day 3.
Next, we drove up to Chisos Mountain! While we were there, they would only allow cars up and down the mountain during small windows of time because they were doing renovations due to a bad forest fire. Though we were in our car most of the time, it was SO worth the drive.
Once we got to the Chisos Mountain camp store - we took a walk to “The Window” - a gorgeous overlook where you can see all of the western side of the park! We WISH we could have spent more time in the lush and cooler temp oasis it was, but we knew we wouldn’t make that window out of there!
Next stop were going to the Fossil Exhibit, that you actually pass driving into the park if you come from the North. Big Bend used to be a seabed and many more types of environments before that. However, that makes it a great spot for paleontologists. Dinosaur bones abound! It was very hot so we checked out the exhibit quickly, but it was super cool and interesting to see how much the land had shifted over the past millions of years. Nature Rocks Ya’ll!!!
Next stop for the day was Terlingua - this is considered a ghost town outside the western side of the park. It’s a chill pit stop if you need to get more supplies outside of the park, but there wasn't much going on when we went. There is a trinket store, and a few restaurants that closed by 1pm - we got there 1:30pm. We were excited for lunch but we ended up just eating some snacks and making an earlier dinner once we got to camp. We also made a very important purchase at the grocery store near Terlingua because we finally bought our one-pot burner! We thought we could cook everything on the grill, but the wind, it made every meal nearly a 2 hour journey.
Our final spot of the day (in the car we mean), was our campsite for the night - Ocotillo Grove! The drive itself to find it was an adventure. Dirt road with endless views all around - and we were the only ones. But it didn’t feel scary, it felt amazing! Mother Nature really is spectacular. Once we got to our site - which was perfect - we set up camp, chilled a bit, listened to some music, read a little bit, and then went for a walk down the rest of the road we drove down on.
The further down the road we went, we now understood why the rangers were so adamant these campsites down here demand a 4x4 High Clearance vehicle. The pot holes and rocks were insane! We walked maybe 30 minutes down the road to see Santa Elena Canyon again from the path and it was just as gorgeous. We were so excited to see stars that night.
Once we made it back to camp and made dinner, we could see a storm start to come in all around us from all sides. Long story short - we maybe slept 2 hours that night? For you future campers reading this post - REMEMBER - “When Thunder Roars - Stay Indoors!” Thunder and Lightning surrounded us and the air smelled like metal. We slept in our car most of the night even though the lightning never got close to us. We were bummed we didn’t see any stars, but we did get a magnificent lightning show. Big Bend is known for being a part of Dark Sky territory - which means there is a very small chance of light pollution! We’ll just have to return to see more stars ☺️
Day 4 - travel day
Once we “woke up” and decided to make moves, we made coffee, packed up camp, and went back to say bye to Santa Elena Canyon one last time! At the lookout point we met this very sweet couple who also have a travel vlog called the “Retirement Travelers” - they were super sweet - follow their journey on YouTube as well!
The next destination was Guadeloupe National Park! Around 5 hours north of Big Bend. We drove through Alpine and then went through Marfa so we could see the cool Prada store art exhibit! I loved this stretch of road because there were surprisingly lots of cool art installations along the way that we were able to explore.
The biggest advice we got for this day of travel was to AVOID ROUTE 285 AT ALL COSTS! Lots of oil rigs are out there and apparently there are a lot of deaths that happen on this stretch of highway from reckless driving! The rangers from Big Bend told us this as well - so be warned!
I’ll leave the rest of our day for the next vlog so we can tell you the adventures we went through to find a campsite that night! But stay tuned, watch our YouTube channel, and please send it to your friends!