Big Bend National Park Trip

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Mr Cimarron

Mr Cimarron

DRIVE, BREAK, FIX, REPEAT
SILVER Star
10 Year
Joined
Nov 8, 2011
Threads
61
Messages
5,377
Location
Cedar Valley, Texas
Just got back last night from a short trip in Big Bend. Got to the park on Thursday and spent all day Friday and Saturday enjoying the park. A couple things I wanted to test out were my new OME comp springs and seeing how COG felt with two full water containers and two heavy ammo cans pull of tools.
Springs worked great. No more bouncy bouncy when going over rocks. The equivalent of a small child up top never was noticeable either.
I had a few issues over the weekend. One morning I had small coolant leak which was fixed by tightening the upper radiator hose. Also had to tighten the frame side of my DS front control arm which got loose on the trail. The parking brake decided to stop working after I was done. I had just adjusted it before leaving and suspect that I yanked a spring off at the wheel because it went from awesome to not working at all.

First night I stayed at the Chisos Basin Campground which is up at about 5,000' elevation. This is where all the good forest hiking is as well as the lodge and restaurant.
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Friday I drove the Old Ore Road which is probably the second toughest trail in the park. Not hard at all. High clearance 2WD probably could have made it. Scenery was great which is what it is all about.
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Friday night I stayed at the Rio Grande Village Campground. It is on the east side of the park next to the river. Its close to the hot springs and has some nice hiking without having to drive.
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Saturday I drove the Black Gap Road which is the only unmaintained road in the park. It think it has gotten worse in the last ten years. This road does require high clearance 4WD. A stock land cruiser would have no problem. Expect pin stripping from the mesquite thorns and if you are like me watch out for your elbows hanging out the window. I had to drive River Road East (dirt road) for 10 miles or so to get to Black Gap which takes you by the old mine. I didn't due much exploring here because I have been here many times before. Great place to have lunch and explore without safety police stopping you.
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Now on to the Black Gap Road.
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This is the hardest part of the trail. Back in the day someone thought it would be a good idea to use concrete on this section. I assume after a couple years they realized it was a bad idea. Word on the trail was that a stock 4WD pickup had some trouble here on Saturday and had to do more rock stacking to get up. I drove south to north in which I went down this section. There is a turn around so you can go up and down if you want.
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Other than this section there is lot of river washouts and hill that will test your suspension a bit. Nothing that will make you tippy.
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This section seems to always have water. There is a nice backcountry site right on the other side of the creek. Perfect place to camp with a place to park several vehicles.
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Was a great little short trip. Lots to see in the backcountry of Big Bend. Old ruins, graves and of course scenery. This was the first trip in I didn't bring fuel. If you enter the north side of the park you have a 90 mile stretch from Marathon before the you get to the gas station at Panther Junction in the park. Gas $3.29 and diesel was 3.88 in the park.
 
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Very cool. I've been wanting to do this trip in my 80. It's about 600 miles from my side of Texas. One of these days...
 
Copenhagen1 said:
Very cool. I've been wanting to do this trip in my 80. It's about 600 miles from my side of Texas. One of these days...
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Our state is so big. Everything fun seems so far away.
 
Thanks for posting!!!! I can't wait till our trip in March.
 
If you feel the need to escape the US here is a good spot to cross. Take a nice soak in the hot springs and then bail for Mexico. Two college kids decided to do some international travel to see how easy it was.
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This was what I think was a Chevy. At least the engine was marked that.
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100 year old trash that now is historical artifacts. Don't pick it up or take it from the park! I wonder if people will think the same way 100 years from now with our trash. I tried to find something with a logo or stamp on it but everything was rusted real good. Mostly round food cans, sardine type tins, and the old flip top tobacco tins. Not a lot of bullet holes in the metal like you see in the old crap in the Colorado ghost towns.
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Thanks for documenting. I need to make some time in the spring or fall and go! It's only 550 miles from my house, but the kind of country I like between here and there.
 
Fuel mileage for the trip.
17.8-Driving fully loaded west on I10 into a nice wind. I've never got good mileage on this stretch in any vehicle.
18.1-Fort Stockton into the park.
18.3- This tank included all the backcountry 4WD driving. GPS (iPad running MotionX GPS HD) showed 9 hours total on the trail.
Filled up in Fort Stockton to head back home. This tank will be well above 20. Had a nice strong tail wind heading east on I10. Still have a little over 1/3 before I need to fill again.
 
Mr Cimarron said:
Fuel mileage for the trip.
17.8-Driving fully loaded west on I10 into a nice wind. I've never got good mileage on this stretch in any vehicle.
18.1-Fort Stockton into the park.
18.3- This tank included all the backcountry 4WD driving. GPS (iPad running MotionX GPS HD) showed 9 hours total on the trail.
Filled up in Fort Stockton to head back home. This tank will be well above 20. Had a nice strong tail wind heading east on I10. Still have a little over 1/3 before I need to fill again.
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I'm still up in the air on going to the SP or the NP. My ONLY reservation about going to the NP is no fires. I really can't imagine camping, especially in March, w/out a fire!!!! Please convince me on one or the other.
 
LFD2037 said:
I'm still up in the air on going to the SP or the NP. My ONLY reservation about going to the NP is no fires. I really can't imagine camping, especially in March, w/out a fire!!!! Please convince me on one or the other.
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Just depends what you want to do and who is going with you. If taking family I would say NP. NP does have hot springs which is nice at the end of the day if you are on that side of the park.
 
Mr Cimarron said:
Just depends what you want to do and who is going with you. If taking family I would say NP. NP does have hot springs which is nice at the end of the day if you are on that side of the park.
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It'll be me and 3 friends. We're wanting the more difficult trails, the most trails, the best scenery, the best camping, the most remote.
 
LFD2037 said:
It'll be me and 3 friends. We're wanting the more difficult trails, the most trails, the best scenery, the best camping, the most remote.
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The SP would be great to drive around and do some exploring during the day and sit around the campfire drinking beer at night. Probably wouldn't see anyone else in the backcountry. The SP website is pretty good. It has pictures of each backcountry site and tells you whether not you need 4WD to get to it.
 
Bookmarked your trip report for our upcoming trip in March. Thanks for posting
 
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