Ditch the Survival Skills With These 3 Easy Ways to Explore Big Bend National Park
BIG BEND National Park can be intimidating. Countless photographs behold the region’s undeniable grandeur, its spectacular amalgam of desert, mountain, river, and sky. But the images also convey vast emptiness—16th-century Spanish explorers dubbed this territory el despoblado, “the uninhabited.” And those scenic photos often overlook the granular details, where scorpions, thorns, snakes, sunburns, and blisters reside. So it’s understandable when the uninitiated knit their brows at the thought of Big Bend, weighing a vacation experience against fears of a survival exercise in the Chihuahuan Desert borderlands. Read More »
A New Texan Finds Beauty and Solitude Amongst the Living and the Dead in Terlingua
I live 4,900 miles away from England, where I was born, on any day of the week. But on that day, home was getting farther away still. It’s not just the eight-hour drive with my family from Austin, where we now live, to Terlingua. It’s something else, something farther than the distance … everything is left behind en route. Read More »
A 1930s Photograph Shows CCC’s Role in Building Big Bend National Park
Big Bend National Park was little more than a hopeful idea when about 200 young men arrived in the Chisos Mountains in 1934 on deployment with the Civilian Conservation Corps. Hungry for work amid the hardship of the Great Depression, the workers, ages 18 to 25 and mostly Hispanic, toiled in isolated, harsh conditions to construct infrastructure for what was then Big Bend State Park. The CCC established a camp in the shadow of Casa Grande peak—still the location of the Chisos Basin campground—and blasted 10,000 truckloads of rock to build Green Gulch Road from the desert floor into the basin. A second CCC crew stationed in Big Bend from 1940 to 1942 built the popular Lost Mine Trail, a store, and four cottages that have been used for lodging since the national park opened in 1944. Read More »
My Hometown: Born of Turbulent Times, Mason Today Offers Hill Country Peace and Charm
When writer and historian Scott Zesch walks through the central square of Mason, everybody he meets has something to say, a question to ask, or a handshake to offer. You’re likely to be a familiar fellow around town when your great-great grandfather settled in the area from Germany in the mid-1850s, you went to Mason High School, and you’re known for throwing rollicking chili parties. First settled as a fort in 1851, Mason formed as a community of Old World settlers scratching out a new life in harsh Comanche country. Zesch brings this history to life in his award-winning book, The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier, which chronicles the lives of nine kidnapped children, including his great-great-great uncle Adolph Korn. Here Zesch, who lives on his nearby family ranch with his wife, Amelia, muses on Mason’s past and present. Read More »
Fossils Tell a Story of Vanished Worlds in Big Bend National Park
The northbound road through Big Bend National Park winds between scab-colored volcanic hills and the baking white flats of the Chihuahuan Desert. During the day, little moves out here but the wind; the heat presses down heavy and hard on the rock shelves. The landscape feels frozen, dry, and dead. In a word, timeless. Read More »
The Daytripper’s Top 5 in Comstock
There are places in the far reaches of Texas where few dare to travel, which is exactly what attracted me to western Val Verde County. It’s a rugged land where the jackrabbits far outnumber the people. A place where the tales are tall, the canyons are deep, and the mysteries are even deeper. If you find yourself trippin’ to the edge of Texas, don’t miss these stops. Read More »
Dress up as Chuck Norris, then Run with the Man Himself
We’ve all had that dream. You know, the one where you dress up as Chuck Norris to run a 5-kilometer race and then celebrate your achievement with “Walker, Texas Ranger” himself. Well, the BCS (Bryan-College Station) Marathon is giving us the chance to live our dream with the CForce Chuck Norris 5K on May 4. Norris will be on hand for the race, both to give an encouraging speech before the starting whistle and to high-five runners as they cross the finish line. Read More »
An East Coaster Learns to Live in (And Love) the Wide-Open Space of West Texas
Seven years ago, I thought of Texas primarily as an obstacle, a mind-numbingly long stretch of highway between ... Read More »
Historian and Author Lonn Taylor on Growing up in the Philippines and Settling in the Big Bend
Now 78 years old, Taylor is an old-fashioned raconteur with a bushy mustache, Stetson Open Road hat, and an assortment of snappy bow ties. He’s also the author of more than half a dozen books and a historian who draws inspiration from his adopted home of the Big Bend. Read More »
A Tropical Winter Weekend Getaway in Harlingen
The business loop of US 77 running through Harlingen is called Sunshine Strip, and the name couldn’t be more accurate. Harlingen boasts February highs of around 73 degrees and an average of only three days of rain for the entire month. For decades, snowbirds from across the United States and Canada have made the city a winter home; the airport even has seasonal direct flights from Minneapolis, Chicago, and Denver. Read More »
The Inspiring Story Behind Big Bend National Park’s Founding 6 Days After D-Day
Seventy-five years ago this summer, the country was gripped by news of the Allied invasion of Nazi- occupied Europe. But even at the height of the conflict, the commander-in-chief could not resist turning his attention, at least for a few minutes, to West Texas. On June 6, 1944, President Roosevelt met with a Texas delegation to discuss the future of what would become Big Bend National Park. Six days later, he signed legislation establishing it, capping a decades-long effort to preserve a state and national treasure. Read More »
Best of the Rest: Big Bend for Everyone Photo Gallery
In our February 2019 issue, Senior Editor Matt Joyce shared 3 ways anyone can easily enjoy Big Bend National Park, even visitors who aren't experienced outdoorsmen. These are some of our favorite photos from photographer Sean Fitzgerald that we didn't have room for in the issue. Read More »
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