When I first announced Trent and I were moving to Del Rio on Facebook, a friend commented that we needed to visit Big Bend. I thought she was confusing Del Rio as a cite in England haha. But after recognizing it was Ben'D' and not Ben, and researching the national park online, I knew it was a place we couldn't pass up.
This trip was one of the most condensed trips we've ever attempted. We did the whole trip in under 2 days. But I'm happy to say it was successful and we hit everything on our to do list. LOTS OF PICTURE I KNOW. But I enlarged the prettiest ;) I'll eventually upload a couple videos to go along with the trip too. Enjoy!
Friday evening we drove in, about 4.5 hrs from our home
We got in Friday night and scoped up a campsite in Chisos Basin. This was actually our first time using our tent and mattress together and we found out.. the bed doesn't fit! So we deflated and then reinflated in inside the tent. It barely worked...next time we'll buy and use separate camping mats.
First time looking at the view outside our tent in the daylight!
view from our campsite in the other direction (Emery Peak)
Scoping out bikes, and stepping onto our first trail
After a long time researching we decided to climb the Lost Mine Trail. It had the most beautiful views for the short amount of time we had. Weird note: when we got the the top, some guy with a super curly mustache was playing a Native American flute on the highest rock (where we are sitting in the following picture). Super majestic...
After the hike we went on the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive and took a couple detours. This is the Blue Creek Ranch.
Mules Ear
Santa Elena Hiking Trail. Went into the mud for a cool shot and kinda regretted it...
Worth it?
It was so hot (2 pm in the desert) when we took this hike that we pretty much had to take a little dip in the water. But then we kind of regretted it again because we didn't know what was in the mud we were stepping into. YUCK!
So this is actually a funny story: we were at a gas station talking to a resident of Big Bend and they were telling us to take this beautiful scenic drive that followed the Rio Grande. We waved off the idea because we really didn't have the time for it but then...we made a wrong turn and ended up on the very road he was talking about. Serendipity.
Can you see it???
Finally we made it to Marfa. Trent's best description of the place is Twilight Zone-ish. It was really weird. Click HERE for some information about the small artsy town of a mere 2000 residents.Make sure to read about the modern art section.
Prada Marfa. Learn about this place HERE
Marfa managed to have 6 delicious and statewide famous restaurants. Del Rio (pop 56,000) doesn't even have one! Again, so Twilight Zoney! We ate at Maiya's. I would drive 5 hrs back to Marfa just for the restaurants!
After dinner we drove back home. Got in at 12:30am and Trent made me promise we wouldn't do ANYTHING on Sunday to make up for the overy crowded day we had. I agree it was crazy. Twist my arm.
I highly recommend anyone who has the chance to go to Big Bend, do it! We loved it. It put us back to our memories of Zion's and St. George rock quarries. And when you live in a flatland, it's so refreshing to have a change of scenery.
