Big Bend Day 4- Big Bend National Park
Day 4 of our Big Bend trip was our actual Big Bend National Park Day. The park is huge and it’s not possible to see it all in one day but one day is all we had. I researched and made a list of places within the park that I was hoping to make it to. We didn’t get to all of it but we made it to the majority.
From Alpine the entrance to the park is still a bit of a drive. It took us about an hour and 10 minutes to get to the Persimmon Gap entrance. I had planned on exploring the exhibits at the visitor centers but for the most part we ended up skipping them.
Persimmon Gap Visitor Center
The Persimmon Gap Visitor’s Center is at the north entrance to the park. We did head inside and spent a few minutes looking at some of the exhibits. They have a hands on exhibit featuring animal tracks, furs, and fossils.
Fossil Discovery Center
From Persimmon Gap we headed over to the Fossil Discovery Center. This is definitely a must do! I wasn’t sure what to expect because there wasn’t much on the Big Bend website but this was a really nice exhibit.
The Fossil Discovery Center explores prehistoric life at Big Bend through 130 million years ago. The center includes a pavilion filled with fossil exhibits. You’ll find fossils of marine animals, dinosaurs, and mammals.
There is also a play area, picnic tables, and an overlook with a view of the desert and the Chisos Mountains.
Panther Junction Visitor Center
Our next stop was the Panther Junction Visitor Center. This is the headquarters of the park. We explored a few of the exhibits here as well. These exhibits focused on the wildlife found in the park.
After exploring the inside of the visitor center, we also walked Panther Path which is a short nature trail.
Panther Junction makes a good stop because there is also a post office, bookstore, restrooms, a gas station, and you can purchase some groceries.
Hot Springs Historic District
The Hot Springs Historic District was one of the stops that I did not want to miss so we headed here next. The road here is kind of a scary drive but it’s only 2 miles and we made it through. The parking lot though is small and we had trouble finding a parking once we got there. Luckily someone left so we were able to park. On the way out, we did notice they had closed the area to not allow any more cars to come through since it was full.
When you step out of your vehicle, you’ll first encounter the ruins of the post office and motel. Then you’ll pass some rock art on the cliffs before heading down to the Rio Grande where the hot spring is.
Chisos Mountain Lodge
Next up it was time for lunch so we headed into the Chisos Basin to have lunch at the Chisos Mountain Lodge.
They were also limiting the number of vehicles heading into the basin. When we got to the entrance of the basin we had to wait in a line to get in but as soon as one vehicle left, they allowed one to enter.
The Chisos Mountain Lodge is the only lodging in the park and also has the only full service restaurant in the park. The restaurant has both patio and indoor dining, and offers fantastic views of the Chisos Mountains no matter where you sit.
We ordered Texas Toothpicks and cheeseburgers for lunch.
Castolon Historic District
By this point it was getting late and we needed to make it to our last stop before we lost light. So, we stopped at the Castolon Historic District but didn’t spend much time there.
Santa Elena Canyon
Our last stop was Santa Elena Canyon. I had already planned on heading here but we met some people while at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute and they told us that if there was one thing we needed to do, it was visit the canyon.
Before getting to the actual stop for the canyon trail, we stopped at the canyon overlook for a minute.
From the parking lot of the Santa Elena Canyon trail, you go through a kind of boardwalk type of trail before crossing over Terlingua Creek to head up the canyon.
The first part of the climb up the canyon wall is a paved stairway. There are also some railings but then it turns into a rocky dirt path at the top. We didn’t walk the entire trail. I think we went up to basically where the paved path ended. JT loved climbing the canyon and wanted to continue but Connor is afraid of heights and didn’t want to continue; so we headed back down.
Santa Elena Canyon is a great place to end the day because you get a fantastic view of Big Bend from the canyon wall.
Once we left the park, we made our way to Terlingua for dinner.
Have you ever been to Big Bend National Park? What are your must sees?
