Big Bend National Park

I spent a week primitive camping in Big Bend in 2018. It's really a magical place, and your family will love it! If you want to try camping a night, you could just drive into one of the Park shops and see if they have anything available when you get there.

I recommend the South Rim trail. It is in my opinion the second best hike in Texas (outside of Guadalupe Peak). It is a longer hike at 12ish miles, with some fair elevation changes and switchbacks along the way, but it was the highlight of my trip.

If you can't do South Rim, them Emory Peak will be your toughest trail. Perhaps give that a shot on day 2 or 3. That will give you a day to first tackle a more moderate trail the day before to get acclimated to everything. Lost Mine trail would work here.

One other trail I recommend is the Window Trail. This will take you down from the Chisos basin parking area downhill to the Window, where you can get a great view of the valley outside of the mountains.

A nice little side trip is to drive over to Terlingua where there are some nice and quirky shops. Marfa has few hip restaurant spots, and there's a craft brewery in Alpine (big bend brewing) if you're into that kind of thing. (EDIT: actually looks like big bend brewing is closed).

For Guadalupe, I only got a chance to do the Guadalupe Peak hike. You can camp out in the park, but at the time I didn't have much gear so I stayed in a hotel in Carlsbad, NM...which I think might have been the closet town to the park with any selection of hotels.

 

ive been to big bend about 10 times and guadalupe twice. december is my favorite time of year to go. i was there last year around this time.

marathon to the main visitor center is probably an hour away. hour and half to get to the basin. thats a lot of driving to do every day. things are probably screwed up/shut down due to covid, but if you can reserve a camping spot id go ahead and jump on it and try to convince your lady to camp for at least some of the time. you arent going to want to do that drive every day! camping used to be first come first serve, but they now do reservations for the majority of the spots. also, they usually book up months in advance, but might be worth seeing if you can get one of those lodge rooms in the basin. even terlingua is closer to the park than marathon. its also got more going on than marathon.

the basin is my favorite campground, but rio grande campground is a good base for hiking boquillas canyon and going to the hot springs. theres also a cool boardwalk trail that goes over a lagoon. you can go to boquillas mexico too, but post 9/11 they require a passport. get some peyote over there and have a real bonding experience with your son!

backcountry camping requires a permit that you get at the office. im not sure if that requires reservations now. also, you used to be able to legally camp off road (with a permit). theres some abandoned horse stables off grapevine hills road that ive camped in a few times when we got in late.

how old is your son? i ask b/c of all the hiking you are looking to do. im sure he will love it out there, but you might need to pace yourself if he is under 10. if he is really young id probably skip emory peak. its a scramble at the top!

covid might prevent it, but they will sometimes have star parties in the basin or at panther junction w/ a couple telescopes from the observatory. theres also a surprisingly decent restaurant in the basin, but again, due to covid it might not be open right now.

 

I was there in October for only 3 days. We hiked The Lost Mine, Santa Elena, and the Window Trail. The Window trail was my favorite.

One thing about Big Bend is that it truly lives up to it's name. It's BIG. We stayed in Terlingua a half mile from the entrance and it still took up to 30 min to get these trails. It was a good 45 minutes between Lost Mine Trail and Santa Elena Canyon.

If you do camp consider that fires are not allowed.

The Scenic Drive is basically your road to Mule Ears and Santa Elena Canyon.

Hot Springs and Boquillos crossing are closed due to covid.

 

ive done the south rim as a two nighter and also done the whole loop in a day. i wouldnt try to do both emory and the south rim in a single day though. that would be a killer! if i had to choose id probably do the south rim loop - that view is the best in texas imo. and emory is the highest peak in big bend, but not in texas (that would be guadalupe peak).

the window is a must-do for first timers. lost mine trail is really cool too...some great views out that way. santa elena canyon is cool to check out (1500' tall slot canyon), but theres not a lot to hike there...however, theres a really cool hike on the road out there called 'the chimneys' that takes you to some really cool rock formations that you can climb. apparently this was the comanche raiding trail into mexico and theres some petroglyphs out there too.

hot springs are a great place to go to early evening right before it gets dark...especially after a day of hiking.

 

I haven't hiked to Emory Peak as I chose to do the South Rim trail instead. The folks who say it took them 3 hours probably already live at elevation and get to do these kinds of hikes all of the time, or are marathon runners. The alltrails page that I found for emory via pinnacles & laguna meadow estimates 6 hours, so say 7-8 hours as a conservative estimate with family in tow.

I went in February, and it was very chilly at night. It was very sunny and hot in the early afternoons (it's a desert afterall). Layer accordingly.

 

if i remember correctly, it took us about three hours to get to the top of emory peak. i just reread OPs post where he said he will have a baby carrier/backpack...i would not recommend emory peak with that! and honestly, the view from the south rim is better. its like nothing you have ever seen! ive done the south rim trail many times with a 40-50 lb pack so i dont think the carrier will be a problem.

i could see it taking 6 hours if you did pinnacles to emory peak then went back down via the boot canyon-colima-laguna meadows route. but you would be hoofin' it to make it in 6 hours. doing emory peak then south rim would easily be 10 hours and BRUTAL!

one thing i would recommend if you do the full loop is going up the pinnacles and down laguna meadows. pinnacles is steeper, has lots of switchbacks and you get some elevation pretty quickly. but going down that way is killer on the knees, especially if you have weight on your back. plus its nice to get the hardest part out of the way on the front-end. going down laguna is way more gradual of a decline.

 

Awesome thread

 

yeah, at the end youre climbing up large boulders to get to the top...its not really a trail at that point. ive only done emory twice and its been 8 years since last time, but i dont remember any other major challenges getting up there.

you either go up pinnacles or laguna meadows...like i said, id take pinnacles and get the toughest part out of the way on the front-end. the easiest would be just go up and down laguna meadows, but then you dont get to do the full loop.

south rim views are better than emory peak anyway. do that one! its not just the best view in big bend, but in all of texas imo.

 

be sure to ditch your weed before you drive out the park. lil border stop between the park and martahon headed north. the southern route between houston and bigbend is a much better drive, but again lots of check points. ernest tinaja is a really cool trail off the old ore road ( even a regular suv gets your there) I love that trail because its not jam packed like every other popular trail at this time of year. have fun! I think ima check out the guadulupe moutains otw to big bend this year for a lil change of pace.

 

Lost mine has amazing views with much less hiking if your feeling lazy to

 

you think someone named stra8thug give a damn about checkpoints!

pro-tip. always check behind the big bend national park welcome sign at the entrance to the park...you might find some treats that people leave behind on their way out.

mainly checks for illegals, but post 9/11 they have gotten more thorough. ive had dogs run around my car a couple times. theres a checkpoint along highway 90, north of the main big bend entrance and north of terlingua.

 

no but you risk the chance of them having a drug dog one day. happened one of buds few years back. I just roll up a couple pre rolls. again checkpoint is only leaving park not coming into it. ( coming from marathon )

 

BP makes you stop, asks you if you're a citizen, and a drug dog will sniff around.

 

We did whip-it’s at the top of Emory Peak. That seemed like a long hike but I was out of shape. I trailed behind my friends and was alone on the trail for awhile. I just felt like I was going to be attacked by a mountain lion the whole time. It was creepy.

I believe we camped at the Rio Grande campsite. We stupidly chose a low point to set up our tents and, when it rained like mad, we got flooded out by a wall of water. We had to get in a four door car. Didn’t sleep that night. That was fun. Crazy storms develop out of nowhere in the Spring.

The wind at the Chisos basin campsite wrecked my tent snapping poles. Had to sleep in the car. lol

At the Window, a friend was standing right on the sloping edge of it looking down. One false move or slip and he’s a goner. Freaked me out a bit.

 

Then you have to take her to the Gage Hotel in Marathon for a night, at least. Restaurant is legit, and also possibly my favorite bar in Texas.