Big Bend Ranch SP

Last week, we spent four days and nights over in BBRSP. It's a great little park, especially if you like solitude and getting away from the crowds.

I've been to BBNP during the busy winter weeks, and from what I've heard (and the traffic I saw on the way), it was pretty packed last week. The State Park, however, while "near capacity" was seemingly deserted.

It took us about 16 hours total to drive there, with an hour nap on the side of the road. (We left at midnight Friday, and I hadn't had any sleep and after a tough day at work.)

Of course, like the National Park, making it to the entrance is only the beginning, it's about an hour drive down washboard roads from the entrance to Sauceda station. We did, however, get lucky, as the reservations for the Guale 2 campsite had been canceled that night (apparently, they had a flat on the way). So our first night was spent at Guale 2 - arguably right up there with the South Rim campsite in BBNP as one of the most beautiful campsites in the region. You camp at the top of a bluff, about 15' from an 80' drop, and then can see the Javelin canyon, and several small mountain ranges from the site. Not to mention, you're about 30 minutes from the nearest campsite. It gets props over South Rim, in that you can drive there rather than having to hike 8 miles to get to it =)

There are no paved roads in the park, and most of the "4x4 roads" are pretty rough compared to BBNP's roads. That being said, you only really would need 4x4 if traveling after a rain. They're fairly long, rocky, and with all sorts of stuff to eat up tires.

We drove the Oso Loop/Guale roads on the first day to the Guale 2 campsite, then took the Rancheria Rd to our second night's campsite, Chisos Vista. Well, you can sorta see the Chisos from this campsite, but it was definitely the least interesting of our campsites. It did, however, have a wonderful wash right next to it that made for a great day-hike. The wash will take you all of the back to the Mexicano campsites, but we stopped just around the bend from them. Being on primarily level ground the whole time was of much appreciation to the lady as that morning we had hiked part of the Javelin trail, where you're covering a lot of elevation up and down.

On Monday morning, the front came in. Went from sweating in my sleeping bag at 3am, to the shivering in the cold by 5. The wind had picked up quite nicely - gusting to 25mph+. This day, we got up, tore down camp and then drove into the Solitario. The road to the Solitario is very nice, only a little rough and with great views. We first drove all the way to the end of the road, to the Lower Shutup trailhead, and it was worth the extra time as the view was very nice. We backtracked after taking some photos, and then hit the trail into the center of the Solitario. It's easy to miss this one, but it's right after the Tres Papalotes campsite, and is labeled the "Tres Papalotes Trail." Either way, this road had only recently been opened, and it was easy to see why it wouldn't be much used. (None of the rangers I talked to had ever even been on it.) The trail is single-track, cut into the side of the mountain, and in a few places was only a few inches wider than my JK's wheelbase. The upper part of the trail continues like this for a few miles, eventually just dead-ending, requiring a bit of some turning gymnastics to get turned back around. I'd hope that trail never gets busy, as two vehicles meeting head-to-head may have to have one back up for up to 1/2 mile to find a an appropriate spot to pass. Don't take the upper trail with more than two vehicles, otherwise you won't get them all turned around at the end.

Afterwards, we were running low on gas and I was out of beer, so we headed back into Presidio for some refueling. Ran into texas2386 who was on his way in, and said hi. Our campsite would be in Fresno Canyon, at the Rincon 1 campsite. On our way back in, we were rushing to beat an incoming storm, that seemed to be dumping on the Solitario. It was drizzling when we finally found the campsite. I say finally, because it was darned hard to find. We had to spot it from a bluff (fortunately had the location marked in the GPS), then hike down to it to find the drive. The campsite was great though, with views in 360', including a great view of the Flatirons. We spent a cold and rainy night in the valley, thankfully the state park allows fires, so we kept warm.

The next morning, we headed on to our next campsite, at Alamos, and ran into another Houstonian. Spent some time talking to him, he had a slightly lifted Cherokee, and was a teacher. He shared a tip on a fishing spot, and I told him about some of the rock crawling parks. Then, we headed back into the Fresno Canyon to visit the old ranch there, and do an easy hike (about 5 miles total). We had wanted to spend the day in the National Park, but I didn't feel like driving another 5-8 hours that day. The night was below freezing the moment the sun went down, and we woke up to about an 18F morning at sunrise. Packed everything up, and headed back to town. In a complete random situation, ran into an old friend at a gas station in Luling and spent the better part of an hour talking with him. The drive back was easier with a tail-wind, we got back in just over 12 hours.

The jeep had no real issues, except at one point it decided to burp oil out of every orifice. I guess I it a cattleguard going too fast, as when we first arrived at Sauceda, I had oil dripping from every seal, including the rear main. Wiped it off, and it did not re-occur. Everything was fine when changing the oil this weekend, except I think my evap canister is having major issues. Friday night, while heading back from a fishing trip, my fuel cap light came on, and has remained on - throwing a check engine light. Does not seem to be impacting anything, however.

Here's a little video I made, not spectacular in any way, just showing some stills and a couple of videos of driving out of the Solitario, and down Guale rd.

Ok, the forum doesn't allow embedding vimeo, so here ya go: http://www.vimeo.com/10340294

!c

Wow, that was a long read. I still want to do a trip to Big Bend. Thank you for sharing.

Very nice, I've always wanted to go to Big Bend.

DooD I loved the time lapse cloud shot at the end!! great vid - reminded me of the Bodie Trail out in Nevada.

Thanks for the write up Church- it really sounded like a lot of fun, except the camping in the sub-freezing temps! bbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

That narrow trail- wow! Yes, that would be a bad situation if you encountered someone running the opposite direction!

akonius wrote:

DooD I loved the time lapse cloud shot at the end!! great vid - reminded me of the Bodie Trail out in Nevada.

Hehe, thanks - I'd get a little ribbing over that, as one would expect that I'd have great motion control and stuff in conjunction, but I was stressed trying to get my rig ready (ended up leaving it at home), and I almost didn't shoot any timelapse due to this being a "vacation" and making timelapse rigs is quickly becoming a "job". But, hopefully now that I've got a lot of the tech. out of the way, you'll be seeing a lot more of that kind of stuff from me =)

N2rock wrote:

Thanks for the write up Church- it really sounded like a lot of fun, except the camping in the sub-freezing temps! bbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

That narrow trail- wow! Yes, that would be a bad situation if you encountered someone running the opposite direction!

It was a blast - even the lady had a great time, I hate the cold myself, I'd rather be hot than cold - especially after this long, horrible, winter. I was really concerned about being on that trail - as the few occasions I'd encountered someone coming the opposite way on the trails, they hadn't done a particularly good job of making a pass easy. Mostly, they just sit there and look at you dumb-founded.

!c

I hope to make a trip out there at some point this year with the boys and do a three or four day trip in the park. Would be cool if we could plan a trip with several of us at the same time.

r_unda wrote:

I really want to make a trip to Big Bend! Do you know when the best time to go is? Maybe we can set a Jeep Nation trip over there! You can be our tour guide!

"Best time" needs some qualification =)

"Most bear-able weather?" - Nov-March (most crowded times are around Xmas and Spring break -- both are "too crowded" for my tastes, personally)
"Best chance of seeing some wildlife" - I'd say late Spring to Mid-Fall. Less people, weather's brutal, but evenings and AM's bring out everything.
"Best chance to avoid the crowds" Summer-Fall. "Fall" is kind of an odd term, it's pretty darned hot straight through October. September is generally one of the safest times of year to go and get some solitude. The river's too high for people to cross it, and the heat's too hot for the crowds. Can spend days in the backcountry without interruption or fear.

!c