One
thing for sure wherever you stay, you gonna enjoy the most beautiful stargazing
night, every night. All night.
Big
Bend Region is one of the four places able to claim the least light-polluted darkest
skies in our country. It is one of the only 13 parks in the world to have
certified a gold-tie certification from the International Dark Sky Association.
In a typical city, a few hundred stars might be visible on a particularly clear
night. In Big Bend, an average night yields a view of more than 2,000.
I
have been an Amateur Astronomer Club leader for a whole middle school, watching
stars, planets, moon, comets and galaxies every night when it was not raining,
I even received one of the only two awards to my city when catching 1P/Halley.
But when the first time I looked up into the Big Bend night sky: I am totally speechless.
The splendid and tremendous could bring me tears: we are not even little tiny a
dust, and this universe is so vivid and bold without any of your mind or even
knowledge.
Other
than the beautiful night sky you catch from everywhere, if you want to go a
place on earth from Big Bend, it is FAR.
I put over 22k miles to my workday vehicle
every year. But still, I can tell you it is no kidding when driving around this
giant park, or even, like us, trying to taste a bit of every town “close by” as
possible.
The one and only lodging facility within the national park is
Chisos Mountain Lodge. They are reasonable priced, center locate in the park, and close to a convenience store and gift shop. They take reservations year ahead. So you can imagine
how popular it gets to be during the peak season. There are campsites and RV parking
around the park, but be aware they do not provide electricity, and do not allow
generator. And their spots fill up full just quick and easy like the Lodge. If
you don’t want to drive out the park at least 34 to over 100 miles one way to a
bed, first thing first, secure your spot.
We stay over Marfa, Terlingua, and Alpine.
Pass by Marathon several times. Visit Fort Davis.
Just to be absolutely clear – Terlingua and
Marathon, they have no Walmart, no Starbucks, no McDonalds, no Four Seasons
Hotel, and -- unlike every other town in Texas -- no Dairy Queen.
We are
very devoted to the Nat’l Park, since it is way big and way special to enjoy. Lots
of days, we leave the lodging place early in morning then return or change to
another place to stay over after dark. We have very limited schedule to hang out
of the park but still, there are many fun and unique stops around those towns.
Rest stops are few and far between, so make sure your vehicle
condition, and to grab snacks and water before you depart.
Terlingua
The closest town to stay if out of the park. About 34
miles from Panther Junction Visitor Center.
They say "Terlingua
Proper" has a population of several dozen. But the local lady counted by
names and very proudly told me, 10 hun, we are having ten people in the town
now. It was once a real mining town
that upon mercury market went bust, over 2,000 miners walked away, leaving
their homes behind. Today you'll find a ghost town made up of decaying
buildings, mine shafts, tall tales, ruins, crotchety old-timers, a three-legged
dog, too much cactus, and semi-friendly rattlesnakes.
We explore the ruins and desert. No one come visit
Terlingua can miss the original Chisos Mine company store (now The Terlingua Trading Company) and the
old-timey Starlight Theatre next to it.
They call Theatre, but kinda best eats locally we find. It was dark and getting cold, outdoor fire is
warm, bar services ice-cold local beer and some nice cocktails, the porch is
full of visitors, shopping while waiting for tables, band doing guitar & singing,
kids playing hula rings. My family also love another restaurant
call High Sierra. It’s very close to our teepee. And not much waiting. We
appreciate the steak and Mexican grill.
In each of these remote and small towns,
there are people bring comfort and fine dining to the guests. And they always
come with bonus: artistic & character, sincere & pride.
But the waiting time could be very tough
during peak season, especially after a whole day hiking. There is easily a long
list to wait 45 min to 1 hour 45 min. Only a few places take reservations (Which I don’t
actually like to, I need flexibility on schedule especially when traveling).
So please stay open-minded while comes to
eating, it could jump in and between white linen to gas station, roasted rabbit
to frozen sandwich. I did my first ever time eat in local cooking station/café inside
gas stations, twice, and first ever buying pre-made sandwich for hiking lunch. They
taste just fine.
 |
| Mexican lady know well how to cook a perfect barbacoa. |
 |
| Local cafe in gas station. Serves from typical Chicken Fry Steak, fried fish fillet, to calzone. |
We
are very lucky to reserve 2 brand new teepees to stay in Terlingua. They just build
them days before we checked in. Over 400 sq ft each, one could easily fit a
whole family. We love the setting and décor very much, and the bathrooms are
very clean and comfortable with rainshower head. The best part is we can have camp
fire, and that means s’more, sausage, warmth to watch stars, true desert
isolation.
 |
| Road to drive to teepees. Think how horrified when we first arrive in totally dark and no cell or GPS works. |
 |
| Seeing our teepees from highway. |
We
do have coyotes visiting us at night, their paws and calls to each other scary
me quite a lot on the first night, but after find out from locals that they won’t
hurt us, it becomes a special excitement & expectation next night.
You
can consider B&B, vocation house, trailer, tent, teepee, if not RV and
motels here in Terlingua. But again, reservations are taken months ahead so
please make sure your lodge reservation before even any other research on your trip.
