Big Bend River and Basin Roads

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Alpine

   Alpine lies in the high desert of West Texas, at roughly 4,500 feet, in a basin between the Davis Mountains to the north and the long, empty country that runs south toward Big Bend. It is a railroad and ranching town of just under six thousand that has quietly become the logical base for anyone heading into the park, and also a college town, because Sul Ross State University sits on a hill above the main street. The result is better coffee than you would expect at the end of a long highway.

   Read the complete Alpine write-up.

2. 2. Study Butte

3. 3. Chisos Basin

4. 4. Santa Elena Canyon

   At the far south-western end of the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, the Rio Grande runs straight into a wall of limestone and cuts through it. Santa Elena Canyon is a gap in the Mesa de Anguila, a long cliff of rock, with sheer walls about fifteen hundred feet high on either side, and the river, wide and brown in the open desert, turns narrow and green and slow inside it. Mexico is on one bank and Texas on the other. A short trail climbs a few steps from the parking area, crosses the mouth of Terlingua Creek, which may be dry or may be a knee-deep wade after rain, and then follows the river into the shade between the cliffs.

   Read the complete Santa Elena Canyon write-up.

5. 5. Terlingua

6. 6. Back to Alpine

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Alpine write-up.