My recent long weekend in Big Bend National Park featured my Land Rover’s first off-road miles, my first rafting trip down the Rio Grande, and the first wedding I’ve ever attended there. I also got to spend time with several folks from Big Bend Chat, some of whom I’d met previously at gatherings in San Antonio and Austin earlier this year.
I left Austin a little before 2 p.m. on Thursday, October 5, following a noon dentist appointment. Lousy scheduling aside, the trip was easy and uneventful. My new Land Rover practically drove itself with its cruise control set on 80+ mph and its perfectly centered alignment following the ruler straight highway. I even listed to most of the fist half of the Frogs’ futile loss to Utah on the satellite radio. I reached the Basin around 10 and was stunned to find it full. Fortunately, Big Bend Chat mainstay Shane had gotten there earlier in the day and reserved two adjacent spots on the top loop, and we eventually located each other. At his kind invitation, I spend that night in his camper, the famed R2D2, and set my tent up at sunrise the next morning.
He and I set out the next morning for a little exploration of the desert via the River Road East, Black Gap Road, and the northern portion of the Glenn Springs Road. To my disappointment, these roads were all indicated on the Land Rover’s navigation system, detracting from their “off-road” essence. We visited the old cemetery at the site of San Vicente and explored some of the arroyos and flats surrounding what used to be a bustling agricultural community. After a quick lunch of sandwiches and chips at the Mariscal Mine site, we drove around the northern tip of Mariscal Mountain and spotted a strange, solitary wooden post in the middle of the desert. We found nothing connected to it, or anything it could have been connected to, but we did tour several abandoned mine shafts and discovered a rusting engine. Some of those shafts — all of them covered in some way — were frighteningly deep.


Negotiating Black Gap | Photo by Shane Allen
It was on Black Gap Road that I discovered how different the Land Rover handles off-road than my old Mazda truck. The Land Rover likes to take control of speed and maneuvering on rough surfaces, and I finally learned to simply let it drive over the rough spots, including the notorious Black Gap, where erosion has created a very rough, steep descent to a two-foot-plus sheer dropoff. I got out to rearrange the boulders while Shane hiked up the hillside to capture the final descent on film. We visited the Glenn Springs cemetery and took a brief hike to Robber’s Roost before making our way back to paved roads and civilization.
On the way back to the Basin, Shane recognized the vehicle of David, the groom-to-be and leader of the Big Bend Chat community. He had just met up with Lisa, who would preside over the wedding, and she was telling us about her incredible morning in the park. On a morning hike to Cattail Falls, Lisa saw a total of seven black bears, two sows with two cubs each and one male. She was exhilirated and terrified and peaceful all at once.
Back at the Basin, we ran into Chisos Muse and her fiancee Jonny. We attended a terrific presentation by ranger Eric Leonard at the campground amphitheater. He read various works of Edward Abbey, including an ill-fated drive across what became the River Road in a vehicle not up to the challenge. We had dinner at the lodge, then sat up at the rickety picnic table at my campsite and drank the evening away. I stayed up with the slightly nervous groom until the beer ran out, hoping he would get some sleep (He didn’t.) and knowing that I would sleep well before the big day Saturday.
Following a beautiful sunrise, Shane drove he and I to Terlingua where the crack staff of the Far Flung Outdoor Center was herding their guests. About 3 dozen folks associated with Friends of Big Bend National Park were in various stages of getting prepared for a day of rafting the Rio Grande through Santa Elena Canyon. It was the first time Shane and I had done this trip, and we were both giddy. It took a surprisingly long time to get on the river at Lajitas (or “La-hideous” as Shane calls it), and we boarded different rafts. Noah was our guide. He was from the Dolores River area of Colorado and led rafting and whitewater trips around the world. It was quite warm and sunny when we were underway, and we were all relieved that we only needed to wear those hot, bulky life jackets for three short stretches of the trip.
The first half of the trip is a float from Lajitas to Entrance Camp, a large flat above a bend in the river just before the entrance to Santa Elena Canyon. The river flows past a series of cliffs, mesas, and side canyons as the Mesa de Anguila gradually gains elevation above the river. The false sentinel and real sentinel float by. The rafts stop at Entrance Camp, where the staff put together a picnic lunch buffet. There is a little time to explore the camp area, including a short hike up the hillside to an overlook peering into the entrance of Santa Elena Canyon.
Approaching the Rockslide Rapid ©2006 Jeff Blaylock
Back on the water, the rafts formally enter the canyon, and suddenly the hot sun vanishes for long stretches. It isn’t long before the rafts reach the Rockslide, the only portion of the float that gets the adrenaline rushing. Following that short stretch of water shooting between huge half-submerged boulders, the river is calm and smooth the rest of the way. Birds and bats wheeled overhead as the canyon walls climbed higher and higher. At times, the uplifted rock created an optical illusion that the river was falling rapidly when it was actually the rock layers which were rising quickly.
The canyon trip is fabulous but strangely unengaging. Spending five hours sitting on the side of a big rubber raft while the canyon mostly drifts by is more like watching it on television than actually going through it live. I guess the passive way I experienced the canyon, though fascinating and beautiful, dulled the senses, as though by not doing the work I was robbed of some of the reward. By its end, the canyon’s walls tower 1,500 feet above the Rio Grande. The view of hikers on the Santa Elena Canyon trail meant we were approaching the end of the ride, and just then a rattlesnake swam across the river in front of our raft, heading to the American side, “for a chance at a better life,” I mused.
A small spread of cookies and drinks was waiting for us as we landed, one by one, at the take out point. A long ride back through the park on buses brought us back to Terlingua, and Shane hurriedly drove us back to the Basin. We didn’t have long to get ready before driving over to the group campground.
Wedding by the Window ©2006 Jeff Blaylock
What a great spot for a small wedding! A group of chairs were set up facing the Window and the setting sun. Groom David and Lisa were there, awaiting the lovely bride. Sarah descended from a trail leading down to the wedding site from above, and in the fading sunlight, she and David became wife and husband. A beautiful sunset and a fun reception followed, and I felt sorry for the poor Boy Scouts’ troop in the adjacent group campsite.
After the reception concluded, we retreated to my campsite and enjoyed each other’s company deep into the night, swapping stories of animal encounters, near disasters, and discovered nirvanas. Lisa was still rattled from her bear encounters the day before, and it was decided her Big Bend Chat moniker would become Goldilocks in honor of the occasion. We made grand plans for a long morning hike to seldom-visited places on the way toward Laguna Meadows. Of course, that didn’t happen, though some of the folks who were staying a little longer got to go later.
Following breakfast at the Lodge — during which we visited with the happy couple and their family — I reluctantly headed back to Austin. What a great weekend!

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