Went with the fam the second week of October. Had a fantastic road trip from Northwest LA. Having been to Death Valley a couple of years ago, I wasn’t sure how it would measure up…however…as a National Park, I found it fascinating. It really is quite diverse in its landscapes and ecology and the fact that you can run across a black bear (which we did on the way back on the Window View Trail) or a mountain lion (“Is that a cougar in the car?”) in the same area is pretty cool.

You can easily make it a couple of days to explore the different areas of the park. The Chisos Mountain area looks like a forest in the middle of the desert. We spent time hiking on several trails over the few days we were there. Santa Elena Canyon trail and the Boquillas Canyon trails were beautiful by the water. The Window View Trail is worth the effort for the view at the end. Some of my favorite pictures are from there.

We ventured into Mexico (with passports) across the Rio Grande via the Boquillas International Ferry and had lunch at Jose Falcon’s Restaurant.

It is a dark sky area and sitting out under the stars and seeing the Milky Way was pretty amazing. We stayed at The Summit at Big Bend in Terlingua. Was a pretty cool experience. Terlingua Ghost Town is not that far away and the Starlight Theatre was an incredibly interesting place to eat, listen to music and do some people watching.

I would definitely go back to explore more in the park and surrounding area. The area is a geological goldmine. There was a group of Geology students from a&m that pulled in behind us at one of the shorter trails (Lower Burro Runoff). If your fascinated at all by how our world was shaped over time and the geologic formations created by that, then this is definitely a place worth visiting.

As with anything, you make out of it what you want. Me and my family found it to be a beautiful park. I would, without hesitation, recommend it to anyone.