Davy Jones is our guest writer and he is also my dad! He still calls Texas “home” but has been living in an RV traveling for the last year. We share a love for the outdoors and he has been lucky enough to go to some places that I have not visited. So I asked him to get out of his comfort zone and write a few posts for the blog. Enjoy his tales from Big Bend National Park!
Big adventures lie in ahead Big Bend National Park if you get the chance to visit. The park runs along the US-Mexico border with in the Southwest portion of the great state of Texas. So, first things first, bring your passport, just in case you happen to cross over without knowing. The whole area is very casual for the most part. BUT technically if anything were to happen bring passport along, there are border control patrols in the park. The other issue with this park it that it is in a very remote area, there some facilities in the town of Terlingua, and some in the park but they expensive and very limited. The nearest towns are Alpine and Marathon over an hour north of the park. The the remoteness is what is so attractive about this national park as well.
Hiking Big Bends’ Balanced Rock
Believe it our not, the first thing we did was a hike, skipping the visitors center all together. We wanted to see Big Bends version of Balanced Rock. To get to the trailhead we ventured into the park via the check-in point off Hwy 118. After getting into the park just take the right turn down Grapevine Hills Road. While the road is not paved and there are signs that say 4-wheel drive/high clearance, you can realistically make the 7.7 mile trip to the trailhead slowly in basically any vehicle. We saw all variety of cars, trucks, and vans down the road. A few small bumps along the way but nothing that is unmanageable.
The National Park Service does recommend high clearance vehicles so I always recommend following their advice! If rain is in the forecast or it has rained recently the road will become more difficult to drive and require more skill and a properly suited vehicle.
Along the road we drove past the Grapevine Hills and eventually to the trailhead that leads to Balanced Rock. The trail, technically called Grapevine Hills Trail, is a 2.2 mile moderate out and back trail. The hike is a very easy run through the desert wash to base of the hills boulders. After this it is a boulder scramble for the last 0.25 mile of the trail. Once at the balanced rock there is a beautiful view back through the valley that you just hiked. Plus a grand view out of the desert and the Chisos Mountains in the distance. I decided to climb around a little more than most! The views offered on these hills are worth the hike and a great eye-candy teaser of what was the come from Big Bend National Park.
Big Bend National Park Panther Junction Visitors Center
Big Bend National Park offers four different visitors centers. The main one being Panther Junction and the three others are called Chisos Basin Visitor Center, Castolon Visitors Center, and Rio Grande Visitors Center. We stopped in to visit Panther Junction Visitor Center on the way to our next destination. This visitor center also serves are the park headquarters. It was worth a stop to get detailed maps of the park, talk to Park Ranger Volunteers, bathroom break and see the displays offer in the main veranda of the center. I always enjoy talking with the rangers and volunteers, they are able to let you know if your initial plans are realistic and are also just always really cool folks. Also check out the bookstore at the visitors center, a couple of very interesting selections in my opinion.
Big Bend National Park Hot Springs
Ya, ya, ya, I know what you are thinking: “Hot Sprigs in TEXAS”?! Trust me, it is worth the trek to the farthest southeast end of Big Bend National Park to take a quick dip in the hot springs on the banks of the Rio Grande.
The third stop of our day was the hot springs! We followed the 1.1 mile unpaved road to a parking area. From there it is about a 0.5 miles to the Hot Springs. Sadly there was a sign indicating no large trucks, vans, or duel wheeled vehicles. Ruby, my F350 dually fit that bill, so we parked her and continued down the road in my friends smaller vehicle toward the hot springs. As we got farther down the road I was thankful we did. It was an extremely narrow winding single traffic road down to the 2nd parking area closer to the Hot Springs! Ruby would not have been able to make the trip.
From the second parking lot to the hot springs is a 0.25 mile hike on the Hot Springs Historic Trail. Along the trail there were several historic buildings which were part of the J.O. Langford Historic Rustic Resort, developed before the area became a national park. Once we were down at the hot springs we enjoyed the view and soaked up the warm water. There was plenty of space to hangout and swim. And for those with the original question, we took our trip in the middle of winter. So the 104 degree water felt perfect in contrast to the 50 degree air temperatures.
This was just the start of our trip to Big Bend National Park! We hit up Emory Peak and so much more around the park as well. Hope you enjoyed my tales, keep reading from some tips I am sure my daughter is going to add to the tail end of the blog post for me.
~ Davy Jones
He doesn’t just live in the ocean after all.
Before you go
Before you start planning your trip to Big Bend National Park, make sure to do your research! The park is BUSY during the summer even though it is so remotely located. Campsites inside the park will book 6 months in advance, and unlike the national parks in Utah, there are no BLM lands in Texas to utilize around the park for primitive camping. I also always recommend getting a National Parks Pass if you plan to visit more than one National Park in a year, which you can get from any National Park entry station or at the visitors centers as well as online.
Another consideration, the park is HUGE. There are so many sections of the park and they are fairly spread out and offer such different experiences. Plus Big Bend Ranch State Park just next door and offers a completely different experience. Even moving through Big Bend National Park quickly it would take over a week to thoroughly explore the park.
Plus, while in West Texas it is worth considering the one and only other national park in Texas, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, is also nearby. So if you make the trip to one, you might as well do both of them! Check out what we did in Guadalupe National Park a few years ago, it was one of the first blog posts on 4 Seasons of Winter.
For more National Park adventures check out where we have been before on the National Parks page of the blog. As always, the NPS websites for each park will have the most up to date information for everything!
Enjoyed the blog report and balanced rock pictures. Have not seen that but still remember the hot springs. We went to BBNP for Thanksgiving Week in 1998. No border patrol then and the guys walked across the Rio Grande then. Memory of how cold the desert is at night and how hot during the day. A beautiful park no doubt. Hike on safely. 💟
Thanks so much for reading! Sounds like your trip was super fun.