For our Holiday between Christmas and New Years we decided to go check out Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas. The only problem was that we had three days to do it. After reading about trips to Big Bend from all the Overland friends it was something that I wanted to see firsthand no matter how brief it was going to be.
This is a map of Big Bend National Park:
Knowing that we were going to be isolated, I wanted to pick up a fuel can mount for the Jeep. At first I was going to get a Daystar cam can for the spare tire. At Four Wheel Parts they didn’t have a red can for fuel, only black and green. I later find out that Daystar didn’t release the red fuel cans due to legal reasons. My other option was to order a Rotopax mount for the spare tire, but since we were leaving Monday morning I had to scratch that idea. We went with no extra fuel. Fortunately next to the Panther Junction visitor center there’s an Alon gas station. Fuel prices were $2.88/gallon versus $1.99/gallon back at our hotel base in Fort Stockton.
Our plan was to stay in Fort Stockton overnight and drive to Big Bend the following morning. Then we would drive back to Fort Stockton at the end of the day to spend the night and drive home the next day. The Visitor Center is about 2 hours from Fort Stockton. We live in North Texas about 6 hours away, it took us around 7-8 because of plenty of stops for the baby to stretch his legs.
This is what our loadout looks like for a 3-day trip. There’s a tool bag in there somewhere, suitcase, 73-quart Wal-Mart cooler, and the rest of it are toys for the 2-year old:
We had a choice between doing Old Ore Road or taking a route that took us to Black Gap Road, which was my preferred choice. The route that I had planned for Black Gap was going to be around 40 miles, some of it rough and un-maintained. Old Ore Road was listed as 26 miles on the map and looked like the safer route to take. Considering the fact that we didn’t leave the hotel until 11:00AM, I took the wise choice to take Old Ore.
When we arrived at the Big Bend Entrance there was no one around. By the time I took a couple of pictures there were five cars behind me waiting to get their “We arrived at Big Bend” pictures. A couple in an almost vintage Subaru Legacy must have thought I was good enough with a camera (I had a tripod set up) to ask me to take a couple of photos of them in front of the sign with their iphone.
We drove the leisurely speed limit to Panther Junction and headed towards their fuel station to gas up. The southern entrance to Old Ore road was about 20 miles away, plus 26 miles of the road itself. I think we had plenty of fuel for the day. Thanks to the Wrangler’s decent sized fuel tank we had enough gas to make it all the way back to Fort Stockton.
A description of Old Ore Road from the National Park Service:
“This 26 mile-long primitive road follows the early 1900s historic route used to transport ore from Mexican mines to the railroad station in Marathon. This road has excellent vistas of the Chisos Mountains and Tornillo Creek, and passes through the foothills of the Deadhorse Mountains, including the cliffs of Alto Relex. A high clearance vehicle and good tires are necessary.”
We drove down to the Rio Grande Village because I wanted to catch a glimpse of the Rio Grande but I had no such luck. Time was running out so we headed to the entrance of Old Ore Road. We followed a couple in an XJ Cherokee, coming the opposite way was a newer Cherokee and a couple of work trucks. I aired down to around 26 psi. A few minutes down the road the XJ that was in front of us had turned around and headed back out.
How would I describe the trail? Bumpy would be a good description. The park ranger at Panther Junction told me that it would smoothen out after the first section, I still wonder what she was driving that could handle those bumps. The views on the other hand, spectacular!
Old Ore winds you through the park into valleys, across several dry creek beds, and up to overlooks. At one point we stopped for a bathroom break and I just had to stop and stare at the bluffs that were overhead.
We passed a few motorists, a couple of full-size trucks, a couple of Jeeps (One that I later found out was part of the local Jeep Club), and a 4Runner. In three hours of driving that’s all we ran into. The poor kid fell asleep midway through the ride so my wife had to cushion his head from the car seat as we went through the bumps for an hour. He finally woke up to see the mountains up close. It’s the first time for him.
We found an overlook area with a clearing for parking. So we all got out and let the baby run around for a bit. I took a couple of pictures and yelled down the valley to see if anyone would return my call. No one yelled back haha.
I couldn’t imagine having a breakdown out here. There are lots of sharp rocks, and if you’re pulling over for someone to pass you may accidentally drive into a cactus and damage a tire if you’re on P-rated tires. I’m just glad I have my E-rated tires for trips like this. It definitely gives me piece of mind.
I was given a deadline of 4PM by the wife to be done with the trail and heading back to Fort Stockton for dinner. I’ll have to say that we far exceeded that deadline. It took us three hours to do the Old Ore Road, including a few stops. It was worth every minute of it. I didn’t care anymore that we didn’t get to do Black Gap, there was enough terrain on this road to keep me entertained.
I put together a video of some of the highlights of Old Ore:
This is the northern entrance to Old Ore Road:
After we got next to the main park road, we stopped to air up the tires. My cheapo Wal-Mart air compressor decided that it was going to hit thermal cutoff so I was only able to air up the front tires. We were about 13 miles from the park entrance (bathroom) so we drove that distance to let the compressor cool down and I was able to air the rear tires back up at the Persimmon Gap Visitor Center, which closes at 5. We arrived there at around 6 PM.
Thanks for reading my report of Old Ore Road in Big Bend. I think we’ve officially seen 3% of the park, so I’ll have to find some time in 2017 to pay Big Bend another visit and possibly spend all day on the route leading into and out of Black Gap Road. Perhaps we’ll spend a couple of days there, I wanted to drive up to Chisos Basin also. We logged 1170+ miles at 17+mpg on our trip. I sure did live up to my Daytrip name this time around.
I know another friend has been there all week and soon we’ll see his adventures down there in Big Bend. Until next time!
