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Since picking up the DR a couple of months ago, I had not yet had the opportunity to take her on an adventure, and after having to recently postpone another Mexico ride, it was finally time to give her the maiden voyage. Even better, my buddy Stardog84 had recently purchased a DR as well, so it made perfect sense to go on a small adventure together. We picked Big Bend as our destination, with the plan being to ride in both the national park and the state park.
In order to maximize our riding time there, we departed from the DFW area after work at midnight on Tuesday, using a little 2WD Ford Ranger to tow the bikes and supplies. We drove in shifts, each of us catching a few z’s when we could. At around 9am, we arrived at the Persimmon Gap entrance station at the northern end of the park. We continued on to the Chisos Mountain Basin campground, where we set up our tents and offloaded the bikes. After everything was set up, we geared up and headed back out of the basin.
The little Ford Ranger that could: Lil' Red sure earned its keep on this trip.
Our campsite in the Chisos Mountain basin.
The plan for that afternoon was to ride the Old Ore Road in the northeastern part of the park. This is an old road that was once used to haul silver ore, lead, and zinc from the vicinity of Boquillas Canyon at the Rio Grande to the city of Marathon, TX, which lies roughly 40 miles north of the national park. Old Ore Road is a 26.6-mile stretch that remains of that original mining road. We rode the 13 miles north from Panther Junction to the Dagger Flat Road, where after 1.9 miles we met the northern end of the Old Ore Road.
The northern end of the Old Ore Road, a 26-mile road that was once used to haul silver ore, lead and zinc.
Old Ore Road starts out with a beautiful view of the Sierra del Caballo Muerto (Dead Horse Mountains) to the East, which is the source of the limestone alluvium that you find yourself riding on.
About 8 miles in (just past the McKinney Spring), Stardog84 met a loose rock that disagreed with him, and sent him on a brief botanical field excursion at this spot. This was also a good time for a brief water break.
After exiting the McKinney Hills, we approached the Alto Reflex, a high ridge of cliffs.
Stardog84 enjoying the ride down the Old Ore Road.
Back on limestone near Telephone Canyon.
Approaching the Ernst Basin, named after Max A. Ernst who began development in this area in 1898.
We took a brief hike to Ernst Tinaja, which is about one mile east of the Old Ore Road.
The lighting was terrible for taking a decent picture, but this is the tinaja ("cup") that is contained within a large limestone creek bed. Various animals, including mountain lions, have reportedly drowned in this tinaja when they we unable to climb back out.
After completing the ride down the Old Ore Road, we took the paved road back to the our camp in the Chisos Basin. The next day, we had an ambitious itinerary. The plan was to ride Glenn Spring Road south, then Black Gap Road southwest to River Road, and head either East or West (depending on the time) on River Road. This was going to be an all-day affair, so we wanted to get an early start. However, the next morning was bitterly cold in the basin, and we decided to take it easy and warm up with some coffee and warm breakfast, and thus allow for the sun to warm things up a bit. We played it by ear and adjusted our route accordingly.
This is considered to be a transitional zone between the Chisos Mountains and the shrub desert below. The Chilicotal Mountain lies to the southeast.
After about 8.6 miles, the infamous Black Gap Road branches off. I was excited to run this road, but an unexpected challenge awaited us right at the turnoff...
Stardog84 had gotten caught in a tire rut, which led him to make involuntary contact with the dirt wall on the edge of the road. No big deal, except...the bike no longer wanted to start. We checked all of the usual suspects, but it quickly became clear that this was an electrical problem that needed to be traced the old-fashioned way. After over an hour of tracing electrical lines with a voltmeter without a solid lead, it was time to make a decision: we decided that I would take the Black Gap Road to River Road East, followed by the paved road back to the campsite, then get the truck to come retrieve Stardog84 and his bike. To address the possibility of myself getting a mechanical out there, we decided that he would either hitch a ride or begin to hike out if I wasn't back by 5:30pm. It was 1:45pm at that point.
Welcome to the Black Gap Road!
Black Gap Road immediately drops into Glenn Draw. This is steeper than it looks (especially when you're excited to get going and not expecting it...).
Glenn Spring crosses the Black Gap Road, and produces an oasis of flora and fauna in that area.
Black Gap Road is the most difficult and the only Class III road in Big Bend National Park. It is a beautiful road that runs southwest of Talley Mountain.
The trail features lots of coarse rocks, depressions, and at times reasonably challenging inclines and declines.
This is just after crossing Juniper Draw.
After 3.8 miles, you reach the spot after which the road is named, the Black Gap (also known as "Pinch Canyon" or "The Steps").
I chose the line to the far right of the rocks, which worked pretty well. Fun stuff!
A natural set of whoops. Shift your body weight to the rear, attack position, go...!
As you are approaching the junction with the River Road, the southern end of the Black Gap Road becomes substantially easier.
On the River Road East, near the Mariscal Mountain. The River Road is a 52-mile road that loosely runs alongside the southern border of the park. Heading eastbound, I had to take this road for roughly 21 miles before I would hit another 23-ish miles of pavement. It was at this point that I realized that I may not make it back to the campsite and back to the trail with the truck in time before our 5:30pm deadline, so it was time to shift into higher gear.
Fortunately, the River Road is an easy road to ride, so was able to twist the throttle pretty aggressively. I made it back to Panther Junction by 4pm, and decided to give the rangers a heads-up about our little rescue operation, which they seemed to appreciate.
I grabbed the truck from the campsite and hauled ***** out of the basin, and then down the Glenn Spring Road. As it turned out, the little 2WD Ford Ranger was quite a capable vehicle!
I arrived at the spot where Stardog84 was broken down with 15 minutes to spare. He later told me that he was overjoyed when he saw the truck in the distance, because aside from a couple of mountain bicyclists, there hadn't been any other people who had come down this trail whom he could have hitched a ride with. We loaded up and rode the Glenn Spring Road north back out to the paved road.
The next morning, we packed up and headed westbound out of the national park and toward our second destination--Big Bend Ranch State Park.
The road leading out of the national park made for a beautiful Friday morning ride.
One final goodbye to the national park, then we were off to the state park.
FM170 is a beautiful ride along the southern border of the United States, particularly past Lajitas, where it hugs the river. This was the only time that I missed my C-14. Or better yet, the 675.
The Rio Grande snakes its way through the canyons. What a beautiful sight!
This was within a few yards of the Rio Grande. Mexico is literally a stone-throw away here.
The turnoff to Big Bend Ranch State Park is somewhat inconspicuous.
It is almost immediately apparent how much more rugged the state park is when compared to the national park. There are no paved roads in the state park whatsoever, and the only 2WD road is the main road. As the ranger said, they "try to provide a very different experience compared to the national park." Hear, hear.
Once you turn off of FM170 into the state park, it is approximately 25 miles of dirt road before you get to the ranger station at Sauceda, where you can get your permits.
I had reserved the campsite at Pila Montoya 3, which is about 7.3 miles northeast of Sauceda HQ. The road to the campsite was a fun 1.5-mile class II trail. Also not a problem for our now experienced 2WD Ford Ranger.
More rugged, breath-taking scenery on our way to Pila Montoya 3.
Our camp at Pila Montoya 3. Wow! Beautifully situated alongside Fresno Canyon, and not another soul for miles!
Since it was already late in the afternoon, we decided to scrap any other plans for the remainder of the day, and made a campfire and grilled sausages and drank beers* instead. *Its a state park, so it was of course O'Doul's only. 
The next morning, we went hiking along Fresno Creek.
Like most of the other creeks, Fresno Creek was dry, but the sights were spectacular.
In spite of the lack of water in the creek, it is an obvious oasis in the Chihuahuan desert.
After the hike, I got ready for ride around the Los Alamos Loop. Since Stardog84 was still without a bike, this would have to be a solo-trip and required some special planning. That loop started about 3 miles northeast of our campsite, heading north for a couple of miles to the Los Alamos private residence, then east for 1.4 miles, and then south for 3.6 miles, before 3.1 miles of Solitario Road closed the loop. Piece of cake! Nonetheless, should something go extremely south and I wasn't back by 5pm (it was 12:30pm when I left), then Stardog84 was going to come looking for me on that route.
Right out of the gates, the Los Alamos loop has a much more rugged and rough feel than any of the trails in the national park, including Black Gap Road.
There were tons of steep ascends and descends, many of which featured coarse rocks that tested one's riding abilities.
On several occasions, the trail was getting very faint, and you had to pay attention not to end up off trail.
Where is the trail?
Another difficult factor was the abundance of thorns on this trail. They were absolutely everywhere, and at times impossible to avoid. I was almost certain that I was going to have at least one flat on this road.
The beautiful terrain featured both limestone and igneous rocks.
On one of the Jeep forums they mentioned how they'd never ride this road by themselves. I could see why...(and was beginning to feel silly for doing so myself)!
Another steep ascend on coarse rocks. More often than not, a bunch of thorny plants were awaiting you at the top.
There were a couple of times where I had to bushwack a clear path through the thorny shrubs.
Either jump the gap or find a suitable detour...
Just south of Panther Canyon on the east side of the loop, the trail entered a creek bed. Not only was the soil deep and loose, and difficult to ride in, but the trail began to narrow significantly. Having not seen any junctions at all, I figured it would eventually open up again, but it just kept getting worse. Eventually the entire trail was blocked by vegetation, and after keeping my helmet down and busting through several of them, I finally had to accept the fact that I wasn't where I was supposed to be. I compared the position indicated by my GPS with my paper map, and it looked like I was a lot further west than I should have been at this point. However, the direction was still leading back to Solitario Road, at least in theory. I decided to do some recon, so I marked the position of the bike on my GPS, then grabbed my essentials, and started hiking ahead. I was hoping that the creek bed would eventually lead me back to the road, but it only got more narrow and had tons of more vegetation for me to crash through.
I went to the bike and now decided to see if I could simply backtrack out of the creek bed again. This was made a bit tricky by the various branching junctions that had been merging in the opposite direction, so I had to look for my tire tracks in the soil to ensure that I wasn't going to end up somewhere else. So I plowed through the same scrubs a second time, covering the bike and myself in branches, leaves, and thorns again. Finally, I made it back out of the creek bed and back on what was definitely the trail. The only problem was that I didn't see any alternative path where the map indicated one would be. I tried to use the old fence line as a reference point, but this wasn't as obvious as I had hoped. I then decided to climb the nearest hill to get a good vantage point that would hopefully allow me to spot the road. Sure enough, about halfway up the hill I spotted a trail in the distance. Ecstatic that I wouldn't have to spend a cold night hiking in the desert, I walked the trail back towards the creek bed and finally found where it connected.
This is where the trail leads back out of the creek bed. Seems obvious now--not so much at the time. I also didn't see any tire tracks until I looked at the picture. Thanks, Murphy.
Finally back on track through the desert.
There wasn't a soul for miles on this trail. I arrived back at the camp a lot closer to the cut-off time than I had expected, but all was well. We spent the rest of the evening grilling more meat and drinking more beer.
We stopped at the ranger station on our way out and chatted with the rangers there. They had lots of good stories about people getting caught off-guard by how rugged and remote this place is.
Overall, we had an absolute blast riding around both of the Big Bend parks. The beauty of this part of the country is breathtaking, and well worth the 10-hour drive back home from the state park.
In order to maximize our riding time there, we departed from the DFW area after work at midnight on Tuesday, using a little 2WD Ford Ranger to tow the bikes and supplies. We drove in shifts, each of us catching a few z’s when we could. At around 9am, we arrived at the Persimmon Gap entrance station at the northern end of the park. We continued on to the Chisos Mountain Basin campground, where we set up our tents and offloaded the bikes. After everything was set up, we geared up and headed back out of the basin.
The little Ford Ranger that could: Lil' Red sure earned its keep on this trip.
Our campsite in the Chisos Mountain basin.
The plan for that afternoon was to ride the Old Ore Road in the northeastern part of the park. This is an old road that was once used to haul silver ore, lead, and zinc from the vicinity of Boquillas Canyon at the Rio Grande to the city of Marathon, TX, which lies roughly 40 miles north of the national park. Old Ore Road is a 26.6-mile stretch that remains of that original mining road. We rode the 13 miles north from Panther Junction to the Dagger Flat Road, where after 1.9 miles we met the northern end of the Old Ore Road.
The northern end of the Old Ore Road, a 26-mile road that was once used to haul silver ore, lead and zinc.
Old Ore Road starts out with a beautiful view of the Sierra del Caballo Muerto (Dead Horse Mountains) to the East, which is the source of the limestone alluvium that you find yourself riding on.
About 8 miles in (just past the McKinney Spring), Stardog84 met a loose rock that disagreed with him, and sent him on a brief botanical field excursion at this spot. This was also a good time for a brief water break.
After exiting the McKinney Hills, we approached the Alto Reflex, a high ridge of cliffs.
Stardog84 enjoying the ride down the Old Ore Road.
Back on limestone near Telephone Canyon.
Approaching the Ernst Basin, named after Max A. Ernst who began development in this area in 1898.
We took a brief hike to Ernst Tinaja, which is about one mile east of the Old Ore Road.
The lighting was terrible for taking a decent picture, but this is the tinaja ("cup") that is contained within a large limestone creek bed. Various animals, including mountain lions, have reportedly drowned in this tinaja when they we unable to climb back out.
After completing the ride down the Old Ore Road, we took the paved road back to the our camp in the Chisos Basin. The next day, we had an ambitious itinerary. The plan was to ride Glenn Spring Road south, then Black Gap Road southwest to River Road, and head either East or West (depending on the time) on River Road. This was going to be an all-day affair, so we wanted to get an early start. However, the next morning was bitterly cold in the basin, and we decided to take it easy and warm up with some coffee and warm breakfast, and thus allow for the sun to warm things up a bit. We played it by ear and adjusted our route accordingly.
This is considered to be a transitional zone between the Chisos Mountains and the shrub desert below. The Chilicotal Mountain lies to the southeast.
After about 8.6 miles, the infamous Black Gap Road branches off. I was excited to run this road, but an unexpected challenge awaited us right at the turnoff...
Stardog84 had gotten caught in a tire rut, which led him to make involuntary contact with the dirt wall on the edge of the road. No big deal, except...the bike no longer wanted to start. We checked all of the usual suspects, but it quickly became clear that this was an electrical problem that needed to be traced the old-fashioned way. After over an hour of tracing electrical lines with a voltmeter without a solid lead, it was time to make a decision: we decided that I would take the Black Gap Road to River Road East, followed by the paved road back to the campsite, then get the truck to come retrieve Stardog84 and his bike. To address the possibility of myself getting a mechanical out there, we decided that he would either hitch a ride or begin to hike out if I wasn't back by 5:30pm. It was 1:45pm at that point.
Welcome to the Black Gap Road!
Black Gap Road immediately drops into Glenn Draw. This is steeper than it looks (especially when you're excited to get going and not expecting it...).
Glenn Spring crosses the Black Gap Road, and produces an oasis of flora and fauna in that area.
Black Gap Road is the most difficult and the only Class III road in Big Bend National Park. It is a beautiful road that runs southwest of Talley Mountain.
The trail features lots of coarse rocks, depressions, and at times reasonably challenging inclines and declines.
This is just after crossing Juniper Draw.
After 3.8 miles, you reach the spot after which the road is named, the Black Gap (also known as "Pinch Canyon" or "The Steps").
I chose the line to the far right of the rocks, which worked pretty well. Fun stuff!
A natural set of whoops. Shift your body weight to the rear, attack position, go...!
As you are approaching the junction with the River Road, the southern end of the Black Gap Road becomes substantially easier.
On the River Road East, near the Mariscal Mountain. The River Road is a 52-mile road that loosely runs alongside the southern border of the park. Heading eastbound, I had to take this road for roughly 21 miles before I would hit another 23-ish miles of pavement. It was at this point that I realized that I may not make it back to the campsite and back to the trail with the truck in time before our 5:30pm deadline, so it was time to shift into higher gear.
Fortunately, the River Road is an easy road to ride, so was able to twist the throttle pretty aggressively. I made it back to Panther Junction by 4pm, and decided to give the rangers a heads-up about our little rescue operation, which they seemed to appreciate.
I grabbed the truck from the campsite and hauled ***** out of the basin, and then down the Glenn Spring Road. As it turned out, the little 2WD Ford Ranger was quite a capable vehicle!
I arrived at the spot where Stardog84 was broken down with 15 minutes to spare. He later told me that he was overjoyed when he saw the truck in the distance, because aside from a couple of mountain bicyclists, there hadn't been any other people who had come down this trail whom he could have hitched a ride with. We loaded up and rode the Glenn Spring Road north back out to the paved road.The next morning, we packed up and headed westbound out of the national park and toward our second destination--Big Bend Ranch State Park.
The road leading out of the national park made for a beautiful Friday morning ride.
One final goodbye to the national park, then we were off to the state park.
FM170 is a beautiful ride along the southern border of the United States, particularly past Lajitas, where it hugs the river. This was the only time that I missed my C-14. Or better yet, the 675.
The Rio Grande snakes its way through the canyons. What a beautiful sight!
This was within a few yards of the Rio Grande. Mexico is literally a stone-throw away here.
The turnoff to Big Bend Ranch State Park is somewhat inconspicuous.
It is almost immediately apparent how much more rugged the state park is when compared to the national park. There are no paved roads in the state park whatsoever, and the only 2WD road is the main road. As the ranger said, they "try to provide a very different experience compared to the national park." Hear, hear.
Once you turn off of FM170 into the state park, it is approximately 25 miles of dirt road before you get to the ranger station at Sauceda, where you can get your permits.
I had reserved the campsite at Pila Montoya 3, which is about 7.3 miles northeast of Sauceda HQ. The road to the campsite was a fun 1.5-mile class II trail. Also not a problem for our now experienced 2WD Ford Ranger.
More rugged, breath-taking scenery on our way to Pila Montoya 3.
Our camp at Pila Montoya 3. Wow! Beautifully situated alongside Fresno Canyon, and not another soul for miles!
Since it was already late in the afternoon, we decided to scrap any other plans for the remainder of the day, and made a campfire and grilled sausages and drank beers* instead. *Its a state park, so it was of course O'Doul's only.
The next morning, we went hiking along Fresno Creek.
Like most of the other creeks, Fresno Creek was dry, but the sights were spectacular.
In spite of the lack of water in the creek, it is an obvious oasis in the Chihuahuan desert.
After the hike, I got ready for ride around the Los Alamos Loop. Since Stardog84 was still without a bike, this would have to be a solo-trip and required some special planning. That loop started about 3 miles northeast of our campsite, heading north for a couple of miles to the Los Alamos private residence, then east for 1.4 miles, and then south for 3.6 miles, before 3.1 miles of Solitario Road closed the loop. Piece of cake! Nonetheless, should something go extremely south and I wasn't back by 5pm (it was 12:30pm when I left), then Stardog84 was going to come looking for me on that route.
Right out of the gates, the Los Alamos loop has a much more rugged and rough feel than any of the trails in the national park, including Black Gap Road.
There were tons of steep ascends and descends, many of which featured coarse rocks that tested one's riding abilities.
On several occasions, the trail was getting very faint, and you had to pay attention not to end up off trail.
Where is the trail?
Another difficult factor was the abundance of thorns on this trail. They were absolutely everywhere, and at times impossible to avoid. I was almost certain that I was going to have at least one flat on this road.
The beautiful terrain featured both limestone and igneous rocks.
On one of the Jeep forums they mentioned how they'd never ride this road by themselves. I could see why...(and was beginning to feel silly for doing so myself)!
Another steep ascend on coarse rocks. More often than not, a bunch of thorny plants were awaiting you at the top.
There were a couple of times where I had to bushwack a clear path through the thorny shrubs.
Either jump the gap or find a suitable detour...
Just south of Panther Canyon on the east side of the loop, the trail entered a creek bed. Not only was the soil deep and loose, and difficult to ride in, but the trail began to narrow significantly. Having not seen any junctions at all, I figured it would eventually open up again, but it just kept getting worse. Eventually the entire trail was blocked by vegetation, and after keeping my helmet down and busting through several of them, I finally had to accept the fact that I wasn't where I was supposed to be. I compared the position indicated by my GPS with my paper map, and it looked like I was a lot further west than I should have been at this point. However, the direction was still leading back to Solitario Road, at least in theory. I decided to do some recon, so I marked the position of the bike on my GPS, then grabbed my essentials, and started hiking ahead. I was hoping that the creek bed would eventually lead me back to the road, but it only got more narrow and had tons of more vegetation for me to crash through.
I went to the bike and now decided to see if I could simply backtrack out of the creek bed again. This was made a bit tricky by the various branching junctions that had been merging in the opposite direction, so I had to look for my tire tracks in the soil to ensure that I wasn't going to end up somewhere else. So I plowed through the same scrubs a second time, covering the bike and myself in branches, leaves, and thorns again. Finally, I made it back out of the creek bed and back on what was definitely the trail. The only problem was that I didn't see any alternative path where the map indicated one would be. I tried to use the old fence line as a reference point, but this wasn't as obvious as I had hoped. I then decided to climb the nearest hill to get a good vantage point that would hopefully allow me to spot the road. Sure enough, about halfway up the hill I spotted a trail in the distance. Ecstatic that I wouldn't have to spend a cold night hiking in the desert, I walked the trail back towards the creek bed and finally found where it connected.
This is where the trail leads back out of the creek bed. Seems obvious now--not so much at the time. I also didn't see any tire tracks until I looked at the picture. Thanks, Murphy.
Finally back on track through the desert.
There wasn't a soul for miles on this trail. I arrived back at the camp a lot closer to the cut-off time than I had expected, but all was well. We spent the rest of the evening grilling more meat and drinking more beer.
We stopped at the ranger station on our way out and chatted with the rangers there. They had lots of good stories about people getting caught off-guard by how rugged and remote this place is.
Overall, we had an absolute blast riding around both of the Big Bend parks. The beauty of this part of the country is breathtaking, and well worth the 10-hour drive back home from the state park.
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Great read... thanks for sharing the ride!
