Big Bend National Park Texas

I didn't know what to expect from Big Bend. I asked some friends who didn't sound impressed and I couldn't find much information on it. We got to the RV park (Paisanos in Terlingua) and I immediately regretted that I didn't stay in the national park. There have been only 5 campers here and I've yet to see anyone who works here. It's a small smash piece of property that had neighbors on both side that look like garbage dumps. However.... Having said that, we just completed day 2 in the park and it is absolutely gorgeous! The mountains, the purple cactus, hardly no one else here, the Jeep trails... It's just beautiful and feels like you're really in nature!! I was a little bummed we didn't sit in the hot springs but there's only one smallish tub and there were several people in and more coming with cases of beer. Not my scene. Also, this place is so big that there is a ton of driving which has been kind of tiring. Several times I've thought of how much it reminds me of Iceland. I think because many areas have no trees, there are areas of boulders and places that look like another world. It is also one of the least visited parks so there are times we drive miles and miles and don't see a soul. So Iceland but without water. We have one more day here. I would come back for sure but I would camp in the park. And I would definitely do the hot springs.

Day 3-we finally met the owner of the campground who was very nice and we chatted about running campgrounds. He also gave us a tip to take the "most scenic drive in Texas" from Lajitas towards Presidio so we did. It was amazing! Almost better than the National Park. There are some steep hills and it follows the Rio Grande. There are some great campsites in several little state Park areas for boondocking if only we had a smaller camper. I'm glad we did that drive though. We also checked out the ghost town of Terlingua where we had dinner the first night at Starlight Theatre. It's a cool old theatre and they had some musicians playing during dinner. I had the brisket which wasn't great but Jerry's burger was awesome.Read more