In this, our thrilling conclusion, you get to see if we made it through the previously blocked Old Ore Road, hiking with our weak human legs, and the perilous Big Bend Ranch State Park reservations hotline!
In our previous installment, we conquered Black Gap with only a minor loss of pride and paint, and headed back to the hotel for some cooler sandwiches and some much deserved sleep. The next up was...
Boquillas Canyon and Old Ore Road
Rumor was this road was closed due to a RV tipping over and blocking the road, but luckily it was cleared right before the government shutdown. More on that later.
We started by driving down to Boquillas Canyon to… walk around and see whats what. It was shockingly beautiful.
Anyway, we wandered around for a bit. We were going to take the border crossing to Boquillas del Carmen, but, alas, the crossing is closed due to the government shutdown. Because reasons.
After a short, easy drive up Old Ore Road we hit Ernst Tinaja. It was an easy hike into the canyon and… well I’ll just let the photos do the talking.
So pretty.
We could have hiked for hours, but given it was getting late and we had a lot more to go, we decided to cut the hike a little short and get moving.
Then we continued up Old Ore Road. The going was tough, but not overly so. Not something I’d want to do in like… a stock Rav4 (wait for it), but not bad. Then we ran into a minor celebrity!
Yup, that is the unimog “RV” that was blocking the road for 21 days. Didn’t look too worse for the wear. I’d like to hear more about what happened from the horse’s mouth. Maybe someday.
Then a stock Rav4 came trundling down the road. As we were scrambling out of their way, they flagged us down, concerned.
Turns out they were told by some… helpful people… that they’d be fine! That… was sort of a lie. Honestly, we were all super impressed they’d made it that far. Either way, they didn’t have a map, hadn’t told anyone where they were going, didn’t have a radio, didn’t have an emergency beacon, didn’t have a tire inflator… basically they were unprepared for how difficult this trail apparently was. They did have a week’s worth of food and water, so that was good.
Seemingly aware of their situation, they requested to exchange contact information with us. As it was getting late, they decided they were going to follow us a for a little bit, then camp. If we hadn’t heard from them by sundown the next day, they requested we… do something about that. We were never clear on the details there.We went ahead and gave them one of our spare maps with their current location marked on it.
For the little bit that they were following us I was super impressed with the driver’s ability off-road. They peeled off quickly and started setting up camp.
As we trundled on, the road got more and more difficult, but still fun. Unfortunately, once again we ran out of daylight quickly and ended up doing the latter half of the road in the dark. It seems like it would have been really pretty, but this was fun too.
We got back into town late, again, but did manage to grab a quick bite at a bar just down the street, then headed in for the night.
We texted the wayward Rav4 to let them know they could probably make it, but the road got harder as we went and it took us until 10PM to get back to town. We heard back the next day that they’d turned around and made it out safe. Godspeed little Rav4!
Lost Mine Trail
Given we had two late nights offroading, we decided the last day in the national park should be a hiking day. We chose Lost Mine Trail because Taylor made us. He got the idea from a photographer he admires and his mind was set on it. It was silly.
Funny enough, in the morning my weather app informed me there was a warning for “freezing fog”. In the desert? Right….
WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS!?
So pretty. So weird.
We hit the trail and was quickly made aware of how out of shape I am.
Also how pretty the park is. Again, just going to let the photos speak for themselves.
And that was it for the national park! We caught dinner in “town” again (this time with an actual table!) and began packing up as we’d be moving locations for NYE.
Big Bend Ranch State Park
Despite being very near Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park is a very different park.
Today we faced our toughest challenge yet: securing a camp site in Big Bend Ranch State Park for NYE.
While we were packing up we were visited by the most chill doggo in the world. We wanted to kidnap him, but thought better of it.
There are two things you need to know about Big Bend Ranch State Park:
- According to the (un)helpful park worker, Big Bend Ranch State park is the largest and least visited state park. (I think he meant in Texas.)
- They 100%, quantifiably, do not have their shit together.
Here is how this went down:
Sunday, Dec 30th
- Call Big Bend Ranch State Park (BBRSP) hotline to inquire about availability and make a reservation. We’re told you have to call the reservation line, which is closed because it is Sunday, but if you talk to the visitor’s center they can make reservations.
- Call visitors center. We’re told reservations cannot be made over the phone and must be made in person.
- Drive to visitor’s center. We’re told reservations cannot be made at the visitor’s center and must be made through a separate reservations line, which is still closed because it is still Sunday. We were told to call them at 8AM on Monday to make that happen.
Monday, Dec 31st
- Call the reservations hotline at 8:03AM to secure a campsite. We’re told you need to call the main park hotline to make same-day reservations.
- Call the main park hotline at 8:08AM. We’re told that same-day reservations can only be made in-person at the visitor’s center.
- Drive to the visitor’s center to secure a reservation. We’re told we need to call the reservations hotline to make a reservation for a campsite as they can’t do those in person.
Lucky for Taylor, who had somehow drawn the short straw on this task, the over-worked state employee behind the counter saw the murder in Taylor’s eyes and walked back his statement somewhat.
It turns out you can make a same-day reservation of a site if that site hadn’t been in use/ reserved the day before. This is for… complicated reservation reasons but the tl;dr is we managed to secure a site.
Vista del Chisos.
We were told that we had “quite a drive” so we decided to hoof it so we could manage to make the site before dark.
As we entered the park proper we went ahead and hit the ranger’s station to check-in. Turns out pretty much everything about the reservation was done incorrectly, but they were more than happy to sort it out. After some additional paperwork we were almost on our way. Except the ranger wanted to… inspect our cars?
That seems weird.
Yeah turns out this road is tough and they’re tired of trying to rescue people in crossovers that “have the clearance” but really don’t.
Weirdly she didn’t bat an eye at the overburdened Renegade, but instead concentrated on the XTerra. Turns out she didn’t know what an XTerra was. Lulz. After a cursory glance at all three she was happy and we were on our way again.
She was right to check the cars.
It wasn’t exactly hard, it was just… hard.
We arrived at our campsite about an hour before dark and headed out for a short, recommend hike to a meadow about a mile up the wash. Turns out there used to be an earthen dam and this wash was how they collected rainwater for the cattle, back when this was a ranch.
We didn’t make it. There were so many thorns. Even at the time of writing almost a week later I still look like I lost a fight with a feral cat and I had to throw my jeans away.
Still, it was very pretty.
We rang in the new year with a bottle of prosecco, drank quickly so we could hide from the cold in our sleeping bags.
Overall
This trip was awesome. I wish we’d gotten out earlier in the mornings and I wish finding food every night hadn’t be so utterly complicated (everywhere had a 3+ hour wait and the kitchens closed at 9 or 10), but Big Bend and Terlingua both where beautiful, charming, and worth going back to.
Even in their busiest week of the year, deep into a government shutdown, the crowds were fine, restrooms survivable, and it never felt too crowded.
I’d like to think I’ll find time to come back, but if not this trip will always be fondly remembered.
The photos in this post were taken by myself or Taylor. Please don’t reuse them without permission.