New Year’s Eve last year was a helluva good time off in remote western Oklahoma, so we decided to do it again. This year, we’re spending the time between Christmas and New Year’s Day in West Texas. We’ll meet up in San Angelo, which is a decent half-way spot for all of us, then head down toward Terlingua and Big Bend.
This is another one of those “stay in one place” trips kinda like New Mexico/Trinity, rather than our longer circuits. We’ve got a reservation for a few nights in Terlingua, which I had to very carefully explain to the others is “almost not a real place” as much as it is two motels, many campgrounds, RVs parked alongside the highway, and a bar or three. I’ve never actually seen it in daylight.
But it seems to have grown up ever-so-slightly since I was there last. They’ve even got a gas station and a coffee shop! For New Year’s Eve proper, we’ll leave our motel and camp in the park for the night, then start back home on New Year’s Day.
Having appointed myself Chief Texan Route Planner, I marked a few hikes on the map that I wanted to do in addition to the off-road adventures.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/texas/lost-mine-trail Could not Embed
George is very excited to take his Renegade on Black Gap Road, which is apparently a “Jeep Thing” for which he can earn some kind of a badge by checking in online? I hate to tell him he’ll be about a thousand miles from the nearest cell tower…
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/texas/black-gap-4×4-trail Could not Embed
And of course, Evan had the Rover in pieces all month, but it seems to be sorted now.
https://oppositelock.kinja.com/the-disco-is-almost-ready-for-its-big-trip-1831153747 Kinja has deleted its OppositeLock and Overland communities. Content Unavailable
Personally, as much as I am excited to see how the “new” Xterra handles some Big Bend adventures, I am even more excited for some hiking on this one. West Texas is beautiful in a very unique way, and I’m looking forward to getting back out there for the first time in about two years. A photographer friend of mine went recently and shared some inspiration that I’ve been pining about ever since.
Looking forward the week, it’ll be highs in the 60s, lows in the 40s with clear skies and a government shutdown. We’re not entirely sure what that’ll do to the park. From what we’ve been able to gather, the park itself will be “open” in that it won’t be closed to entry, but every service will be shuttered. We should still be able to do the hiking and driving we have planned, but we will have to cancel the border crossing at Boquillas and possibly the camping night.
If that happens, we’ll camp in Big Bend Ranch State Park instead, which would also be an exciting adventure. The state publishes a 20 page booklet called Roads to Nowhere on how dangerous driving is in BBRSP, as there isn’t a single paved road in the park, but the subtext is “you’d also be stupid to not do this.”
Not gonna lie, after our trip to New Mexico and my own roadtrips to Nevada and Colorado this year, I’ve screamed past the Big Bend National Park exit on I-10 three times already this year and always had the itch to stop. Excited to bring the group to The Great State and show off one of our treasures.
Merry Christmas to all, I hope Santa brings you lots of car parts.