Retreat from holiday hype in the Big Bend

December 13, 2006
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

What a lovely surprise to discover how un-lonely being alone can be.
--- Ellen Burstyn

 

Below a sky of obsidian flecked with diamond-dust stars by the millions, night visitors to the Big Bend region of Texas are treated to a celestial show of increasingly rare performance.

With little regard for anti-light pollution measures, cities brighten up for crime-resistant neighborhoods, bigger airports, safer streets, shopping malls, and Christmas spectacles. And, in small increments, the real show fades into obscurity.

But the skywatcher’s sensation of nocturnal vastness in the Big Bend, named for the 300-mile southern downturn and northward return of the Rio Grande, doesn’t fade when the sun comes up. For those who enjoy a little transient solitude, West Texas is a sanctuary.

There are those who love – even thrive upon – the hustle, bustle, hype and crush of Christmas, but many will travel far to escape it. The Big Bend region of Texas is not far, only remote. A four-hour drive will put you into the sparsely-populated middle of it, yet within easy reach of splendid accommodations, culinary masterpieces, colorful residents, and scenery beyond imagining.

On a recent visit, my wife Debbie’s maiden voyage to the Big Bend, she exclaimed, “As I was growing up, I was always told that Texas doesn’t have real mountains. Just look at those rocks! They are so high!”

And the brief, exhilarating hike into the Santa Elena Canyon, tucked away on the national park’s southwest corner, reveals how deeply cut that rock can be, too. The steep-walled canyon – 1,500 feet deep – is a habitat of plants and animals as different from the surrounding desert as is an apple from an orange.

The same may be said for the peaks that form the Chisos Basin in the heart of Big Bend National Park. Rising more than a mile above the lower elevations in the park, Emory Peak tops out at 7,825 feet above sea level. The trail to its spindly top is steep, exhilarating and rewarding.

A less challenging, but equally prized hike is to the top of Lost Mine Peak, with a trailhead along the road to and from the Chisos Basin. The park is full of such treats scattered across its 881,000 acres, about 1,300 square miles. There’s archeology, paleontology, history and pre-history here, too, framed by the too-obvious geological and botanical displays.

Wild, wooly, remote – Big Bend is all these things, and a raw, unforgiving landscape, to boot. But it’s not without hospitality. Forever Resorts, a nationwide chain of hotels, marinas (including the one at Diablo East on Lake Amistad), stores and restaurants, provides the accommodations at the Chisos Mountains Lodge.

In the Chisos Basin, visitors are afforded lodging in clean hotel rooms (no TVs and no phones, in keeping with National Park Service policy), acceptable fare in a restaurant, modest supplies in a store, money from an ATM, and stamps in a Post Office. If lodgers simply must have electronic visuals, Forever Resorts has rental VCRs and movies available.

But don’t expect a lot of hoopla for Christmas or New Years Eve. “No, we don’t have any special events scheduled,” explained Forever Resorts Clerk Joyce Griffin, appearing puzzled by the question. Though visitation is subdued now, it picks up dramatically between Christmas and New Years, Griffin said.

Lodgers and day-tripping visitors may be fortunate enough to learn that all the basin’s inhabitants are not two-legged. Sightings of groups of javelina and deer are common, black bear are more occasional, and glimpses of mountain lions are rare – reserved for the very lucky.

Gas before you go! Gasoline is not a bargain in West Texas. Regular grade gasoline over the Thanksgiving weekend at H-E-B and Wal-Mart was $2.05/gallon. It’s a certainty that you’ll need to buy gas in the Big Bend Region, but a full tank will delay the necessity of a first purchase there. Here are the prices for regular grade gas seen at filling stations around the area: Sanderson, $2.39 Alpine, $2.39 Study Butte, $2.48 Marathon, $2.51

Though closures on Christmas Day and New Years Day are common elsewhere, Interpretive Ranger Bob Jacyna said the park’s visitor centers at Panther Junction and in the Chisos Basin are open every day of the year. No rest for the Forever Resorts folks, either. Griffin said their facilities are open all year long, 7 a.m. – 9 p.m.

But bring your own celebration, and keep it low-key so other visitors aren’t disturbed. This is the time of the year to see this magnificent park. From late spring to early fall, this place is a sand and stone oven, but now it’s cool and crisp in the morning, warm and sunny in the afternoon. Chilly at night, though: Bring jackets and sweaters.

Big Bend is a vast, nearly silent wilderness, and meant to be enjoyed for that alone, a quiet distinction that creates a memorably distinctive holiday season.

For more information, take a look at the Big Bend National Park official Web site, www.nps.gov/bibe.