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Camping at Big Bend Ranch State Park
Lots of folks have visited Big Bend National Park. But have you been to Big Bend Ranch State Park?
It’s remote, rugged, thick with cactus that’ll grab your pant legs, populated by tarantulas and javelinas — and incredibly gorgeous.
I just got back from a four-day camping trip to West Texas. The park hosted a long-awaited and twice-postponed Fiesta to unveil miles of new biking trails, dozens of new campsites and give folks a look at the biggest state park in Texas.
I camped at an incredible site called Guale 2, about an hour and a half by 4-wheel-drive vehicle from the park’s headquarters, dubbed Sauceda. I pitched my tent high on a mesa that overlooks Rancherias Canyon. I ate chicken cooked in a dutch oven, sipped wine as the stars popped out, and laughed around the campfire with half a dozen Texas Parks and Wildlife employees. When the sun went down, I crawled into my tent, read by the light of my headlamp for a while, and was lulled to sleep by the sound of the wind flapping against the rain fly of my tent.
Heaven!
Other highlights? Riding a mountain bike on Horsetrap Bike and Hiking Trail, clattering through the rocky terrain around Sauceda on the back of a horse, learning about wilderness survival from a park employee and eating barbecue as a cowboy plucked away on a guitar.
Trust me, it’s worth the 9-hour drive to the park. Just make sure, as they say, that you bring two spare tires.
Comments
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By Tim Gaskin
November 22, 2009 11:25 AM | Link to this
We also were there for Fiesta at BBRSP and camped at two remote locations. You are absolutely right on, BBRSP surpassed anywhere else we have visited or camped in TX and beyond. We are planning our return.