Bone-Chilling, Breathtaking Big Bend National Park
Hi there,
Welcome to 2021! What a wild ride last year was, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us this year.
Noah and I had a lovely Christmas with loved ones. We—together with some friends—started off the New Year right with a camping trip to Big Bend National Park here in Texas. The drive was long, and the weather was freezing. But the views were worth every frozen toe.
The camping trip was our friend Corbyn’s idea, and she organized the whole thing. Big Bend is a well-known National Park that sits on the US-Mexican border, and it’s usually booked up six months in advance. In response to Covid, only a couple of their camping grounds were open. Corbyn kept her eye on their website, and when someone canceled, she snagged the opening right away! She booked us two campsites—one for the 9th and 10th and another for the 11th so we could stay a little longer.
On the morning of the 9th, Noah and I woke up at 5:00 AM and loaded the car with our camping gear. We reached Corbyn and Emma’s house by 6:00 AM, where Cole had stayed the night. Before the day had dawned, we tried and failed to fit all our gear into one vehicle and ended up needing to use an extra car. We headed out before sunrise and picked up some tasty tacos for breakfast.
For the next eight hours, we cruised along the road to Big Bend National Park—that’s about 465 miles—and arrived at our campsite in the early afternoon. The beauty awed us as we drove through the park to our site and the Texas hills turned into mountains. It was a vastly different landscape from where we live. Our campsite was surrounded by snow-dusted mountains on every side.
After unpacking our cars and setting up camp, we noticed that we still had a couple of hours of daylight. What better way to spend that time than by hiking? We found a 2-mile trail to a cool spot and piled into the truck to go there. It was a few miles away, and we all enjoyed the view while we drove to the trailhead. I personally vouched against the idea. According to my calculations, we would be walking back in the dark, and I was afraid of the cold.
I’ll admit, though, that the hike was beautiful! We walked through a valley then up a hill. Waiting for us at the top was not only an amazing view but also the star of the hike: the balancing rock! Taking pictures wasn’t even a question. On the drive back to our campsite, Noah and I sat in the back of the truck and admired the sunset in silence. We cooked dinner, then we crawled into our tent for the night.
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| Cole, Emma, and Corbyn at Balancing Rock |
Much to our chagrin, our propane heater ran out of gas early in the morning. Noah and I woke up shivering as we weren’t as prepared for the cold as the others. And so we welcomed the new day with an early morning drive to warm up. I was so cold that I wasn’t motivated to take out my camera, and I ended up not taking photos that day.
We discussed our itinerary over breakfast and decided to hike another small trail called the Santa Elena Canyon. Even though we were camping in the middle of the park, this trail was about an hour’s drive away on the far, southwest side of the park. We took our time on the drive and stopped a couple of times to admire the view, use the bathroom, and grab lunch. At one point, we stopped to gaze across the river at Mexico.
Forty-six miles later and we had arrived at the head of the trail. The hike is just 1.6 miles long, but we weren’t in a hurry. We took photos, climbed rocks, and chatted with fellow hikers. The end was glorious. The Rio Grande runs through this canyon, separating Mexico from America. The water was cold but shallow. Everyone but me went in to take pictures. After a while, we strolled back to the car and made the stunning drive back to our campsite. It ended up being a day-long activity.
Back at the campsite, Noah and I took a nap while the others used the last hour of sunlight to take another short hike. We ate dinner, and Noah and I chose to sleep in the car.
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| Noah enjoying the snow at our campsite |
One of the wildest things about the mountains was that every morning we woke completely smothered by clouds. You couldn’t see anything—not even the mountains that we were camped at the base of. However, every day around 10:00 AM, they would clear, and it would be blue skies for the rest of the day. Without the sunshine and with the wind coming off the mountains, the nights and mornings were freezing! Due to the cold, we decided that we would pack up and leave on the night of the 11th instead of waiting until the morning of the 12th.
So, on our last day, Monday the 11th, we decided to leave the park so Noah and the others could do bouldering. We were supposed to move campsites that night, so around 11:00 AM, we moved our stuff a couple of sites down, but we didn’t set up since we had decided to leave that night. On our way out from our first site, we noticed that the mountains were covered in white. Eager to see the snow, we made a detour on Lost Mine Trail. However, when we got out of the car and inspected the ground, we realized that the “snow” was actually a thick frost covering everything. It was beautiful.
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| Walking back to our car as the clouds cleared |
The change of landscape amazed me. One minute we were in the snowy mountains, and the next we were in the desert. We spent the morning at Indian Head exploring and climbing. We noticed a small town nearby and stopped in to explore and eat lunch before heading back to the campsite.
We packed up our campsite and filled our cars again before dark, and we drove out of the park as the sun was setting. The eight-hour drive home was brutal. We got back just before 1:00 AM. Noah and I took a wonderful, warm shower and headed to bed. Thankfully, he didn’t have work the next day so we could sleep in.
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| Emma at Indian Head |
All in all, our trip to Big Bend National Park was amazing! It was bone-chilling, but breathtaking in its beauty. The hikes were amazing, and the company was fun. I took a myriad of amazing photos using the 50mm lens that Noah had given me for Christmas! I had a blast figuring it out, and I got some cool stuff that I couldn’t have captured with my other lenses. If you want to see more photos you can check out my Instagram.
Obviously, because of Covid, we can’t travel interstate right now. But Texas is so big, and I would love to explore more of it. Camping is an affordable and fun way to experience nature. I so desperately want to plan some more trips in the future. I would also love to go back to Big Bend and explore it more in warmer weather. So keep your eyes out for more fun trips from Noah and me!
Until next time,
Darcy-Rea Rogers
P.s. Check out this little video I made from the trip!
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