Big Bend National Park:
Travel Tips
Big Bend National Park: The Basin, in the Chisos Mountains. View from the
Lodge to the west.
Elevation: 6000 feet. Scale: The vertical rise on the right is ~1500 feet. Distance to
horizon: 150 miles.
1. You DRIVE to Big Bend. The nearest airport is 200 miles away. 2. How do you know you're getting close to Big Bend? You do the FM Test on your car radio. Hit the "seek" button. When the seek just goes round and round the whole FM spectrum without finding a station, you know you're close to Big Bend. 3. Rooms in the park lodge, in the Basin, are standard issue motel rooms, minus TV, minus telephone. "No TV?!" you exclaim? Yes. All you have to look at is the incredible, 200-mile view to the west, over the "Window," a massive declivity in the mountains that form the basin. Note: The rooms with the best view are in the "A" building, especially the rooms on the 2nd floor, which all have even numbers (A2, A4, A6, etc.). (If you can't live without music, take a boombox.) 4. Big Bend is a geophysical anomaly: It's one of the few places in the world where EVERYWHERE you go is uphill. Don't ask how this is possible. In the first few minutes of walking around, you will quickly discover that it is true. (Horses used to be kept in the Basin for the longer trail treks. No more. Now it's foot power all the way.) 5. The park is huge (New England could fit comfortably within its borders). The speed limit is 45, maximum (slower in some places). Though you will be driving through miles and miles of nothing but splendid desert/mountain scenery, keep a light foot on the pedal. The National Park Police do patrol the place daily. 6. According to the rangers, Big Bend is crowded only three times a year: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring Break. The rest of the time it is solitude city. 7. There is a hot spring (at Boquillas Canyon) but as of August, 2000, it was so badly silted up that it was unusable. (Another, private hot spring, Chinati, is 100 miles to the west as the crow flies, 175 miles as the car drives.) 8. You can easily cross the Rio Grande to Mexico (via rowboat, $2 each way) either at Boquillas on the east side of the park or at Santa Elena on the west side. Santa Elena is more tourist-friendly, with four small restaurants to choose from. 9. The Basin, at 6,000 feet, is cool even in August.
10. There is city time, and there is desert time. They are very different. It takes several days for your mind and body to adjust down to desert time. A quick trip to Big Bend is like fast sex: it's nice but can be so much better. Two days? Maybe. Five days? Yes. END Photo: Boris Chao.
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