January 2 to 9, 2022
Written Jan 17!!
Where did the time go?? Sorry to have kept you hanging… but we’ve had a hard time getting online! Here’s a recap of our second week of travel, and we’ll try to get caught up to the present in the next few days. When we last wrote, we had arrived in Terlingua, TX on Sunday, Jan 2 planning to head to Big Bend Ranch State Park in the morning, for a week-long stay. With Janine’s back still sore, a week with minimal driving was sounding really good! It was another COLD night, about 35 degrees, so we were glad to have electricity, and looking forward to some warmer weather in the forecast – and we had highs in the high 60s to low 80s (heaven!) and lows in the high 30s to high 40s. NO COMPLAINTS there!
On Monday morning, Jan 3 we packed up as it warmed up, and hit the road for the short drive to our reserved campsite in Big Bend Ranch SP, with a quick stop at the Barton Warnock Visitors Center. We collected our check-in slip, coveted Texas State Parks Pass (good for a year at all 84-odd Texas State Parks!), and other assorted info, and set out onto the famous FM 170, a road that runs adjacent to the ‘mighty’ Rio Grande for about 40 miles from near Terlingua west to Presidio TX. This road distinguishes BBRSP from the bigger Big Bend National Park to the east, which has little road frontage on the Rio Grande. Oh, and FM stands for Farm to Market, indicating it is a smaller non-highway road, but well-maintained. Things we like!
FM 170 did not disappoint – on the drive in, we went up and down a few roller-coaster up and downs that were pretty exciting in the trailer. Easily 15 % grades, but just short pops up and down. We found our campground, Lower Madera, with no problem, and, it being a Monday, had the choice of any of the 15 sites, which were all on a dirt road, and on the small side. But we managed to squeeze in, get set up and head out for an ‘easy spin’ on our road bikes that turned into a crazy climb right out of the gate – called Big Hill. Kid you not, it’s even on the map! Here’s our strava activity if you don’t believe us! It was literally visible from our campsite, if we had only looked!
January 4, Tuesday morning (38 degree low!) we spent doing yoga classes (Janine), trailer and bike maintenance (Mike) and exploring around our camp, before it was finally warm enough to want to get on our mountain bikes and ride around a bit. You couldn’t see the Rio Grande from the campsites, but it was accessible from a boat ramp in the campground (and it turned out you could even hear the river at night). We then rode back toward Terlingua to check out the Contrabando mountain bike/hiking trail the Park Ranger at the Visitor Center had recommended, and explored the other campgrounds nearby. A quiet and uneventful day, it warmed up to about 68 – close to our 70 degree goal!
On Wednesday, Jan 5, Mike was starting to feel like he was catching a cold (luckily we were self-quarantined because the campground remained almost totally empty!!) and we were ready for a change of pace, so we drove about 10 miles west on FM 170 to a couple of recommended shorter, easy hiking trails: Closed Canyon and Hoodoo. Closed Canyon was a neat slot canyon out and back, about a mile and a half, almost chilly in the late morning air. Hoodoo was much warmer, a nice loop with lots of ‘hoodoos’ (basically a rock formation bigger on the top than on the bottom). Educational, fun and not too stressful! The afternoon was consumed with yoga (Janine) and a nap (Mike and the cats…!) with temperatures in the mid-70s! In honor of our good friends Julia and Peter, we had snacks and beverages by a fire before dinner, when it quickly got too cold to want to be outside!
On Thursday, January 6 we drove the 6 miles to the Contrabando Trailhead and tackled a big-ish loop there. Mostly single-track, it offered plenty of challenge on our hard-tail bikes, some fun and fast gravel roads and quite a few scenic/historic stops. Mike’s cold seemed better and the ride was (mostly) good for Janine’s back… except for a few sudden trail surprises! See the photos for more.
Friday we drove to Big Bend National Park, thinking to have an easy day… but we ended up doing a 6+ mile hike (“The Window” at Chisos Basin, fabulous… but not ‘easy’, at least for us!). Janine’s back was definitely worse from the hiking (that was a bummer) and Mike still wasn’t getting over his cold, so we opted for dinner out at the fun and funky High Sierra Bar and Grill (GREAT burgers AND tacos! And AWESOME waitress!) and after some ‘International Dark Sky’ stargazing, we hit the hay!
Saturday Jan 8, we took a ‘rest day’ and drove the whole 40 miles of FM 170 to the historical town of Presidio, did some shopping and had a great home-cooked mexican lunch at the Farmers Market. Mike’s cold was better, but Janine’s back was worse… Biking good, driving bad! That evening, Mike had his first wild-life sighting – a Javalina, or wild pig that wandered through the brush right near our campground. Another early night, after some more stargazing. Even with a quarter moon, the sky was packed with stars! We even got out our star guides and found some constellations.
Sunday was our last full day at Big Bend Ranch, which made us sad, but somewhat excited to anticipate getting back to ‘civilization’! The weather was forecast to be cloudy, and colder with a chance of rain, which didn’t sound that great, so we had decided to move on toward the Gulf of Mexico.We managed to survive a week without cell or internet (closest access we found was about a 25 mile drive, so we didn’t go without entirely).
In the morning, we ‘bushwacked’ a trail down to the Rio Grande, did some cleaning (Janine) and maintenance (Mike). Just before we started getting organized to go for one last road bike ride, Mike somehow managed to spot a Bighorn Sheep WAAAY up on one of the ridges above our campsite, with the binoculars. We both got a chance to see it. So cool! A park ranger later told us he hadn’t ever seen one yet, and was glad to hear they are around! Couldn’t get a photo, alas.
Our last ride was scenic and hilly (and windy! Always windy!) even skipping the “Big Hill” (we had to drive the half-mile of gravel road to get out of the campground anyway, so we drove up and over to a boat launch/wildlife viewing area on the other side!). Then it was time to get organized and ready to move on! More to come!