Splendid Solitude At Big Bend

By Maggie Kielpinski

May 2015

We’re flying down an unbending highway, 100 miles from nowhere in the vastness of southwestern Texas — near Big Bend National Park, to be precise. I’m wondering whether this is worth it, as we barrel along under a hard sky that fades out the prairie ahead. As if on cue the light changes; it’s early evening and fulvous mountains turn to indigo, and the once-scruffy grass becomes a wavering sheet of gold. Even the untidy tailings around the town of Terlingua have morphed into gorgeous buttermilk ziggurats.

I had no idea what to expect in Big Bend. Or where to stay. A random stab into a Texas visitors guide landed on Maverick Ranch RV Park at Lajitas Golf Resort, in the little town of Lajitas. Because it’s on the Rio Grande, and because it’s between Big Bend Ranch State Park and Big Bend National Park, this campground seemed the perfect pick. And, indeed, we hit pay dirt. As we pulled up in the fading light, I saw large grassy sites, a commodious clubhouse, a swimming pool, and congenial hosts. All in a Western movie set of majestic buttes.

Lajitas sprawls along a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande. Long before the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo of 1848 fixed the Rio Grande’s deepest point as the border between Mexico and Texas, the river’s narrow floodplains provided pioneer Mexicans a tedious subsistence. Dispossessed Comanches found easy pickings amid the sage and mesquite of the Chihuahuan Desert. The early Spanish presidios were long gone, and the settlers offered so little resistance that the Indians slaughtered them with impunity. Indian raids were so frequent that a vast swath of trampled dirt, which forked through Lajitas in the west and Boquillas in the east, became known as the Comanche War Trail.

Thus the tide of settlement ebbed and flowed. After the Civil War, Texas Rangers and the U.S. Cavalry succeeded in subduing the Indians, who were replaced by bandits from both sides of the border.  By the 1880s settlers began to dribble back, and amalgamated parcels of land turned into grazing space for cattle.

By 1900, mercury ore had been discovered at Terlingua, 11 miles from Lajitas. Big Bend flourished. A road was finally paved to the railroad town of Alpine, 80 miles to the north, creating easier access to cattle markets, and Lajitas became a major point of entry that supported a trading post, saloon, school, and customs house. Bandits from south of the border grew increasingly bolder and more desperate, and in 1916 a cavalry outpost was built to protect the ranchers and settlers. Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing’s troops were stationed there during their pursuit of Pancho Villa’s revolutionaries.

By the end of World War II, the value of mercury dropped. Successive droughts had created a severely overgrazed range. The federal government began negotiating for a national park, and the land reverted to what the Spanish previously had called despoblado, uninhabitable.

The little town of Lajitas was down to four residents in 1977 when a developer bought part of it. By the early 1980s, a golf course and condos brought economic growth to the area. In the year 2000, the entire town of Lajitas, including Pershing’s fort and surrounding acres, were sold to another developer, who tried to establish a very high-end resort for elite customers. That effort ceased in 2007, and in early 2008 more affordable rates were established for the resort. One of the perks of staying at Maverick Ranch RV Park is that we motorhomers get to use the Lajitas Golf Resort facilities.

One morning, we ambled across the highway, past the crumbling cairns of an early cemetery, to the once-exclusive getaway of the rich and famous. If we golfed, we’d play the spectacular championship course designed by Lanny Wadkins, a startling juxtaposition of velvet greens amid gravelly mesas. If we rode horses, we’d maybe do an intense clinic in roping or barrel-racing at the equestrian center. Then again, we might get in some target practice; or bike, hike, river-raft or choke on the dust of a back-country Jeep tour.

Instead we took in the minimalist Western landscape of mesquite and yucca. Alone, we strolled along the boardwalk of a faux Western town past condominiums all eerily deserted, even though it was high season. We continued on past a milky blue reservoir to a cluster of rugged-looking dwellings that overlook the river.

The entire town was purchased, but not everything of historical significance has been wiped away. The resort uses many old buildings. The old Ivey ranch house, built in 1946, was reinvented as the Ocotillo restaurant. A watchtower in the middle of the compound overlooks the river and lends credence to the tales of bandits who raided well into the 20th century. Although closed for lack of guests when we were there, the ranch was once the social center of Lajitas, the scene of daylong fiestas enjoyed by people from both sides of the border.

The recently refurbished chapel of St. Mary and Joseph, built 100 years ago by H.W. McGuirk (considered the founder of Lajitas), teeters over a sandy arroyo. The old trading post is now the resort’s golf course clubhouse, and the old cavalry barracks have been converted to guest rooms, elegantly styled and sufficient for the fussiest tourist.

The road beckoned, so the next day we took Farm to Market Road (FM) 170, known as El Camino del Rio, “the river road,” from Lajitas west to Presidio. It soon became apparent why we were warned not to take our RV. This road is like riding a roller coaster — a riot of blind crests and blind curves for 49 miles. Thankfully, we had the road to ourselves, except for the occasional dusty pickup truck.

The road travels through Big Bend Ranch State Park. It’s hard to imagine that this was once one of the largest ranches in the country. This landscape of caustic volcanic tailings, rucked mesas, and knife-sharp canyons is a dynamic chiaroscuro of light and shade.  We were in no great hurry, so we explored the old movie set at Contrabando, built for use in films such as Streets of Laredo. We also hiked Closed Canyon, which is so narrow that we could touch both sides.

We finally arrived at Presidio, a tiny border town set along the Rio Grande. Across the border is Ojinaga, steeped in the history of the Mexican Revolution, where a battle between Pancho Villa’s revolutionaries and government troops took place. American writer Ambrose Bierce is said to have died here while covering the revolution. Perhaps this is why it all feels slightly dangerous. A duty-free store is located on the Mexican side, so be sure to have your passport with you if you wish to buy anything there.

The following day we headed in the other direction: 30 miles east into Big Bend National Park. The Chisos Mountains is the only range within the park boundaries.  We headed up the narrow road through a 5,000-foot altitude gain marked by vegetation that changes from cactus and succulents on the valley floor to oak woodlands and coniferous forest. Civilian Conservation Corps workers were here in the 1930s and lined the roadside with their signature rock walls.

The overlook reveals a gigantic basin rimmed by jagged peaks that cup the Chisos Mountains Lodge, general store, and the Chisos Basin Visitor Center.  We barely navigated a secluded campground in our pickup truck and regretted that this lovely place was not able to accommodate our motorhome.

The Chisos Basin Visitor Center displays exhibits about plants, animals, and birds that inhabit this oasis in the desert. Mammals include black bears, mountain lions, and coyotes. On the way back down the mountain we startled a white-tailed deer, which darted across the road in front of us and off into a tangle of scrub oaks.

Opting for the shorter loop through Big Bend National Park, we took Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive south to Castolon. At Sotol Vista Overlook we were able to pick out the V-slot of Santa Elena Canyon 12 miles away through the blue haze of mesas. It’s hard to imagine that we were driving through what was once Homer Wilson’s ranch, once one of the largest ranches in the West, comprising 28,000 acres. Save for the family home, it’s gone.

We continued our exercise in invisible history at Castolon, a settlement that once served the local farmers with the only trading post within a hundred miles. It has now all but vanished, given over to a herd of javelinas nosing through the long grass at Cottonwood Campground.

Finally, after exploring the Rio Grande by canoe as well, we visited Terlingua Ghost Town. The town is on FM 170 between Lajitas and the entrance to Big Bend National Park.

At first glance, from the highway, Terlingua looks well past its prime. Amid the usual rusting desert detritus, the crumbling rock of old miners’ cabins is gradually being reclaimed by the earth, and there was not a soul abroad. But as we slipped past the conning tower of a submarine; a replica of the Statue of Liberty; and a two-masted, square-bowed schooner, all corralled by a wire fence under a sign that says “Passing Wind,” we found an idiosyncratic community of writers, painters, loners, and dropouts. Besides nearby Study Butte, this is the only place to get a burger or pizza. It was too early for dinner at the Starlight Theatre, next to the trading post, so we parked ourselves on the upstairs deck of the High Sierra Bar & Grill.

With a beverage in hand, I surveyed the wide landscape in front of us, the “world’s great geologic textbook.” I was puzzled as to why I’m so enthralled with this vast emptiness. After all, the Grand Canyon offers more spectacular geology; I’ve rafted Class III rapids on the Gallatin River; and I live on a pine-clad mountain. Then it occurred to me: it’s the solitude that’s so spectacular.

The most popular time to visit this area is between November and April, as temperatures can be high in summer.

P.O. Box 479

Alpine, TX 79831

Email: info@visitbigbend.com

1 Panther Drive

Big Bend National Park, TX 79834

(432) 477-2251

10 Main St.

Lajitas, TX 79852

(432) 424-5180