Big Bend Ranch State Park includes some of the most rugged and scenic country in the state. Getting to see it is not easy. Once you do, it’s unforgettable.
There are several ways to take in the park – hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding. I chose a guided tour in a four-wheel-drive Suburban with Ranger Blaine Hall and six others. Raised in Fort Davis, Blaine returned to his family home after a career traveling the world as a geologist for a large oil company.
We started our daylong journey at a bluff near the end of the road overlooking El Solitario, the park’s signature feature. Keep in mind that the term “road” is used very loosely out here – loose rocks and loose wildlife. Just to get to the park headquarters, visitors endure 27 miles of washboard roads that will rattle your teeth.
El Solitario was a giant volcanic blister formed thousands of years ago. When the dome collapsed, erosion and the uplift of limestone plates formed a distinctive geological formation. Although you can hike into the rugged interior of the cauldron, it is best appreciated from a distance. From the air the view is even better.
We descended slowly into Fresno Canyon. The mostly dry Fresno Creek cut this deep valley. Much of the rough jeep track we followed is part of the 60-plus miles of the Epic bike ride, the only trail ride in Texas so designated by the International Mountain Biking Association. “Those guys and gals are animals,” Blaine said. The trek is a brutal day of steep climbs, screaming down hills, and trudging through deep sand.
Much of our trail ride and the Epic bike ride follow the old Marfa-to-Terlingua stage road. It took wagons three days to make the journey a car on the highway can do in less than four hours.
Besides the stories of the natural history of the park, Blaine clued us into the history of its past human residents. Under a limestone outcropping Blaine showed us ancient pictographs left on the rock shelter’s roof. At the end of the road, we walked around the ruins of the Crawford-Smith Ranch house. This is where Big Bend legend Hallie Crawford Stillwell spent her youth.
Over nearly a century, more than 28 ranches tried and failed to tame the desert that is now the 330,000-acre state park. These men and women of steel fought more than just bandits and screwworm. Blaine explained that the weather patterns changed from winter rains that favored grasses to summer rains that encouraged the growth of bushes like creosote and ocotillo that punctuated the landscape.
Big Bend Ranch State Park is southeast of Presidio and about an 11-hour drive from Austin. Besides camping, the state’s largest state park also has a group bunkhouse and a three-bedroom main house. For information or reservations, go to www.tpwd.state.tx.us or call the park at 432/356-4444.
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This article appears in March 18 • 2011.
