This is the first of several posts that describe our multiple exciting adventures in West Texas. I start with our first trip in March 1999. Janet and I had been married for barely a year and Big Bend had caught our eye. We planned a combination of independent exploration and activities with outfitters.
While it was a 600-mile drive from Houston to our hotel in Terlingua, it is an easy drive along I-10 most of the way. It reminded me how Texas is 3x the size of Britain! We stayed overnight in Terlingua at the Big Bend Motor Inn before checking in with Big Bend River Tours for our multi-activity adventure.
The first “leg” was half a day of horseback riding with Lajitas stables.
Our vivid memory from that morning was unfortunately the soreness from being in a saddle for four hours. After lunch, we were able to walk around and explore independently, which we have learnt is our preference. The saddle soreness wore off fairly quickly, and the desert sun wasn’t too hot.
Our first trip to the Texan desert revealed a beautiful variety of cactus, fighting to survive in the dry rocky landscape.
We found evidence of previous inhabitants, from stone huts to petrographs.
A highlight was watching the colors change over the Rio Grande as the sun set.
For that night, we had chosen the adventurous (and cheaper option) of camping by the river. We were less keen when we discovered the tent was in a field used by horses. I was able to clear manure away from enough ground to set up our sleeping bags!
Needing to clear the horse manure diminished the excitement!
I’m sure we didn’t have the best night’s sleep, but ready or not, the next day was the start of our two-day paddle down the river. We headed back to the outfitter. The low water level, which I believe is normal, meant we were paddling canoes rather than rafting. We put into the river close to the outfitter in Lajitas, ready to paddle through Santa Elena Canyon.
After the trip on the river, we had fun exploring some more of the national park.
We headed out of Big Bend but took a roundabout route visiting a few other places on the way back home.
This was one of our first big road trips and was a lot of fun, except for the pollen triggering allergies. I had no idea that I would be back so often!
To read about our other adventures in West Texas, go to our West Texas page.
The Adventures of the Cajunlimeys 