Doing a spur of the moment trip towards end of next week to big bend national park.

Will 3 nights be enough to get a good bit in?

We already booked 3 nights here: https://summitbigbend.com/

Planning on doing Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, Santa Elena Canyon, lost mine trail, boquillas canyon

What else is a must?

Do we need to carry extra gas?

What about big bend ranch state park? Worth checking out or better to save for another trip?

Lost Mines as an early morning or late afternoon hike for sunrise/sunset. A lot easier for early morning as parking fills up fast the later you go right at the trailhead.

I believe Chisos Basin vistor center is closed for renovations but that lot fills up fast in peak times like now. Show up early and plan to spend your whole morning there. Hike, break for food, hike again, break for food/rest, hike one more trail. Suggestions there are Window Trail (easy), Emory Peak (intermediate), South Rim (easy but long hike and can be linked from Emory if you want an extra long hike).

You will invest a few hours to get to Santa Elena or Boquillos trailheads if you go from one to the other so plan ahead on more hikes around to maximize time. Santa Elena means Mule Ears or Chimney; Boquillos means Hot Springs or Marufa Vega (super long and difficult) or Pine Springs.

State Park is a cool "rest day" but Slot Canyon and HooDoos are super cool chill walks and less crowded.

Bring lots of spare water as it will more than likely be warm during the day still. Finding gas and food are never an issue as long as you are consistent with filling up when at half a tank, and plenty of restaurants outside of the park or stores inside park for emergencies.

Do The Window in the morning, and Lost Mine in the evening.

Take your passport and do the trip to Boquillas. Ride the donkeys into town, just like the song!

We did a float trip with Far Flung Adventures in Study Bute, but who knows that their water situation is?

If you are really a devout hiker, hike to the top of Emory Peak. Take water and start early. It is amazing!

Eat dinner at the Starlight one night, but get there early. Definitely take the drive to Presidio. There is a box canyon hike that is really cool and easy along the way.

Fins Up! said:

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We did a float trip with Far Flung Adventures in Study Bute, but who knows that their water situation is?

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This gaging station information might be useful.
https://www.ibwc.gov/water-data/active-gaging-stations/

Fins Up! said:

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Definitely take the drive to Presidio. There is a box canyon hike that is really cool and easy along the way.

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the canyon is Closed Canyon. Its in the state park. Its cool, but if this is your first time in the area and only have 3 days, don't waste your time driving to Presidio or even the state park. I'm not saying that stuff is bad, but you'll have way more to do in the NP than you have time for. Its a big area, so even trying to just see stuff in the National Park, you can spend the better part of the day in the car without leaving the park.

that said, after a long day, head to terlingua. Have a beer on the front porch and be at starlight when it opens to get a table. Or eat/drink at the bar and talk to the locals.

I went for the first time last Spring Break. Window hike is great. Emory was good, too, but the last couple hundred yards are not for the faint of heart.

If you have a telescope, bring it. It was the most stars I've ever seen in my life.

3 days will barely be enough to cover the basics at Big Bend but you will be able to get in a good trip with your plans. If you are fit and go hard, you can fit in 2 day hikes in one day in the basin, or take the round trip hike to the south rim in one long day, go up the meadows and come down boot canyon side to the pinnacles.

If you are extreme you can even get in a side trip up to Emory peak but that is a dawn to dusk type hike.

Your itinerary is pretty laid back and you can probably add a couple short hikes to it if you find anything interesting.

The window hike is an easy short hike to double up with lost mine for a full day.

Santa Elena canyon is great to be near (not at) when the sun rises. There are some elevated points on the road to it that let you see the sun hit it and turn it orange and pink. The canyon itself is a short hike if you don't mind wading Terlingua creek a bit sometimes.

I go out and hit 2 of the 3 of big bend, big bend ranch, or Guad Mountains every fall. Big bend ranch seems like it is close but it takes a while to drive to Terlingua and take 170 all the way over to near Presidio and then the long 20-30mph drive on gravel roads into the state park. 170 is a spectacular drive west of Lajitas so if you have a spare half day, iit can be cool to drive it as far as closed canyon and do that short hike.

It would be really hard to fit in big bend and the ranch in 3 days. I typically take 4 or 5.
The ranch is more for desert purists that like remote off the grid hiking and trail driving. You can go all day and maybe see a dozen people or less. It's also great mountain biking with a good bike and no flat tires.
If you are into geology, Fresno canyon and the drive into the solitario are pretty awesome.

This is on my bucket list. Please give a report when you get home.

If you go to Santa Elena come back on the offroad trail (Maverick). I would also highly recommend heading up to the state park north of Lajitas, I thought it was gorgeous up there and plenty of hikes.

Just got back yesterday from my first trip down there. We drove down Friday, back on Monday after hiking Lost Mines Monday morning. Got to the trailhead at 720am and there was 3 spots left that filled up immediately after we parked. Get to that one early or you'll have to just get lucky and find a spot. Otherwise there's a small lot just down the hill with a few more spots.

Chisos Basin Visitor center lot also fills up but if you do Pinnacles or Emory there is a small lot on a loop by some cottages down off the corner of that visitor center lot.

There is a gas station near the Panther Junction Visitor Center, gas is cheaper than it was in Terlingua.

Window is a good one, but it's downhill on the way out and uphill coming back. The newsletter said they do a "3pm Window Trail sweep" every day to check for people who are struggling to make it back up

We did Pinnacles, Window, Santa Elena, and Lost Mines. Also drove the Ross Maxwell, went to Boquilla Canyon, and drove out to see Rio Grande Village. Lots of driving but felt like we saw plenty in a few days.

You had all day Friday or part?

How long did Pinnacles take?

Also - how would you rank each in order from most fav down....

How was your cell reception through out the park?

Thank you and everyone else who has contributed!

aggies4life said:

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How was your cell reception through out the park?

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It's been a few years since I've been but it was non existent the last time I went.

The one place it worked was at the top of the old mine trail. As I sat staring into Mexico contemplating life and whether I wanted to ever go back to civilization my office manager called to ask some ridiculous question

If you have valid passports cross over to Boquillas del Carmen for lunch and some cheap souvenirs.

Was just there a few days ago. Virtually no signal aside from Rio Grande Village and a few other random spots. Expect NONE.

jja79 said:

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I grew up right off SH 385 which goes in the front gate but I've never been to the park so I'm no help. I can tell you though that if you go through Marathon it's pronounced Mara-thun.

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When we went out there last Christmas, there appeared to be plenty of well heeled people when we stopped for dinner at 12 Gage Restaurant in Marathon.
https://gagehotel.com/dining/12-gage-restaurant/

aggies4life said:

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How was your cell reception through out the park?

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Chisos Basin Visitor's Center and the main Visitor's center had WiFi.

I'm on T-Mobile and the Campground at Chisos Basin had 4G which wasn't great but it was good enough to s/post on TexAgs while laying in my sleeping bag at night.

For this year's trip at the end of December, I've activated the 4G AT&T hotspot in my Jeep so we'll see if that's any better.

If you park at Boquillas Canyon Trailhead and hike, beware of the banditos on horseback.

My brother warned me about this before we went and I thought he was full of crap. But sure enough, as soon as we parked, some Mexican guy came riding up on horseback. We were in a group of about 10 vehicles. I stayed with the vehicles but horseback guy rode up the trail and then surveilled the parking lot from the trail. He never came and messed with our vehicles but, I was posted up very visibly (I was injured at the time and couldn't do the hike anyway).

If you do the hike, there are merchants who come across the Rio Grande and sell their wares so bring some small bills. And apparently (I found out later) there is an opportunity to buy some mary jane if that's your thing.

When we went in 2022, we rode the boat across and paid the boat guy $10 for all three of us (there and back), paid $30 for the donkey ride (there and back), and spent probably $50 on lunch, beer and wares. It's was a great time and one of our favorite activities of the trip.

It was a Gringo Honeymoon!

Yeah they did! That and the Paisano in Marfa.

I am staying at the El Capitan this March.

Fins Up! said:

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Yeah they did! That and the Paisano in Marfa.

I am staying at the El Capitan this March.

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When we were driving between Los Angeles and Texas regularly, we used to try to time our stops so that we hit El Capitan in Van Horn for dinner.

Their pistachio fried steak with jalapeno gravy is amazing.

Thanks for the tip!

I live in Phoenix and travel back to Texas a few times per year. El Capitan is a favorite and Hollywood nailed the CFS there. Bar and restaurant are really good.

We just drove down on Friday so hiked Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Took 4.5 hours for Pinnacles, including a stop for trail lunch at the top. Ended up being like 6.5 miles round trip from where we started and stopped. Screenshot shows where we hopped on, near the small loop lot rather than the Chisos Basin lot via the Basin Loop trail head.

Cell reception was good near visitor centers and higher up in the basin, but once you get away from stations and driving the long stretches it was almost zero. Have AT&T.

Hard to rank them because they have different pros and cons. Lost Mines and Pinnacles both have amazing views. I loved the end of Santa Elena about 45 minutes till sunset looking down the end of the canyon from the river, and it was shorter so easy to do in the cooling of the late afternoon. Window was a little underwhelming for me, super slick rocks near the edge of the window so you can't get all the way to the edge and just better expansive views overall from Mines and Pinnacles.

We found AllTrails times to be pretty accurate for our group's pace. Lots of good data on there if you don't already use the app.

Thanks! Was Boquillas Canyon and Rio Grande Village worth it?

Saw a big daddy bobcat stalking varmints last Friday in Rio Grande Village in the field towards the river. He looked at me for a few seconds then went right back to business.

We stayed in Terlingua, came in via Maverick Junction each day so it was a haul getting back from Rio Grande Village to the far West side. Probably wasn't worth it for us but we were killing time in the heat of the day after a morning hike.

For Boquillas we didn't hike it but we drove all the way back there, past the crossing turnoff. Went up on the overlook where the Mexicans have left lots of wares you can leave cash for and buy if you want. I just enjoyed how far out there we were, felt way out there. Didn't have any interest in making the crossing into town.

The best view from the window trail is actually to break off to the left on the wal back up and hike about the first half mile of the trail that goes down to the springs. It takes you up the hillside to the cliffs looking down to the north with a wide view all around.

You can fit a lot into a 3 night stay if you can get there early afternoon on day 1 (and still have lots left over for your next trip).

How good shape are you in? If decent shape, and more adventurous, I would skip the Window trail and make a full day of hiking Emory Peak. Get to the Basin parking lot by 7:30am and start up. You can make it up and back by the afternoon if you're in good shape. You won't regret it.

Lost Mine is really good and an easy hike.

Check the calendar and head over to Boquillas for lunch.

For something different consider hiking to Cattail Falls. Look it up ahead of time b/c they don't show the trail on the official park map anymore.

Can't go wrong with hanging at Starlight like others said, but La Kiva is really cool too.

Now I need to plan a trip.

Ate at La Kiva last December and it was great. But, it looks like it closed back in July 2024.
https://lakiva.com/

Thanks for all the help this far:

Which canyon would be the best for a half day canoeing?

HollywoodBQ said:

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Ate at La Kiva last December and it was great. But, it looks like it closed back in July 2024.
https://lakiva.com/

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That sucks. I was there in February.