Bend Ranch State Park - part 1

On Saturday I left Paint Gap 1, took a slight 6 mile detour to the Panther Junction Visitor Center to dump trash and refill water, then headed west out of the National Park and to Big Bend Ranch State Park. I fueled in Study Butte and passed through Telingua. Telingua used to be this funky little town where old hippies worshiped the sun and ran naked in the desert. Well it looks like they have turned to capitalism. It's somewhat developed now with little primitive RV parks, and nightly rental cabins. 

The River Road along the Rio Grande and border with Mexico is worth the drive by itself. It winds through canyons with steep drop offs and views of the river. This is part of BBRSP, but not the “real” BBRSP.

This will be my third trip to BBRSP. If you have read Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitude, then you will understand when I say this reminds me of his description of the old dirt entrance road to Arches National Park. The entrance road is 26 miles of graded dirt, which crosses draws, winds through canyons and is suitable for any reasonable vehicle, but it’s not recommended for large RVs. I hope they never pave this road. 

My combination, F150/Enzo, handles the road easily at 30 - 40 mph until I catch up to two very large horse trailers traveling a steady 5-8 mph. I drop back to eat less dust and settle in for a very long drive. I finally reach a scenic pull off, stop for lunch and let them continue their crawl, since there is absolutely no place for them to pull over and let me pass.

By the time I catch them again, they are pulling in to some corrals and I have the road to myself again. I have to check in at the Sauceda Ranger station, which was a private working ranch before it became a state park.

                                                        Sauceda Ranger station

As I stated, the main park road is suitable for most vehicles, but the miles and miles of road leading to campsites and trailheads require at least high clearance and often 4WD. It was a slow day at the ranger station, so I spent some time talking with the Ranger. He told me that the park handles any vehicle mishaps themselves, since wreckers won’t come out. The most common vehicles they rescue are all wheel drive Subarus. He said people believe they can go anywhere. The ranger station has trash, water and SHOWERS !!!!!! The showers are open 22 hours a day. I’ve been doing solar showers etc, which work, but just not the same as the real deal.

My first night is at Los Ojitos, which is only about 1 1/2 miles from the Ranger Station, the last half mile is a rocky 2 track road. I couldn’t hear a man made sound, nor see a man made light in camp. The nearest campsite to me is about 2 miles away but separated by a number of rocky ridges. 

                                             Los Ojitos Campsite

But amazingly I have two Verizon LTE bars on my cellphone, so I thought I’d post. 

Most likely after this, I’ll only be able to post using the wifi at the Ranger station. I have to stop there each time I change sites, so I’ll shower, trash out, refill water and post. I have three nights at Pila Montoya 3 and then two nights at La Posta before I leave the interior of the park and head out to camp near the river.

Scott asked about the front of Enzo being lowered in many photos. Pointing the truck south and dropping the front section of roof gains me about 2 amps of solar gain. My battery bank is two 240 amp-hour, 6 volt batteries, which gives me 120 amp-hours of usable power at 50% depth of discharge (DOD). The panels have kept up, but they also receive a charge from the alternator when driving. I only got down to 70% DOD once when I had 2 cold, cloudy days and didn't drive.

Tight lines and safe travels