Big Bend National Park
Have you ever heard of Big Bend National Park? Big Bend is located about 30-45 minutes south of Marathon, TX. This makes it a great day trip option if you’re staying at the Gage hotel. This park is bordered by the Rio Grande which separates Texas and Mexico. The park is over 800,000 acres and the views within this park are INCREDIBLE. There are over 150 miles worth of hiking trails. You can hike along the Rio Grande, the desert, or the Chisos mountain range. This mountain is unique and offers a wider variety of topiary and a little cooler temperature due to the altitude of the mountains. It is unique to see the greener landscape of the mountains surrounded by the dryer desert. **Warning: paved roads in the park are minimal and I would highly recommend a 4WD vehicle. We took my husband's Toyota Tacoma and it did just fine (it had brand new, larger tires) but there was one part where it got a little hairy. The rain in the Chisos mountains caused a creek bed to turn in to a river, which was inconvenient as there was a road that crossed this creek since it usually always dry.
Remnants of the hot springs bath. The water was HOT, hence why I only have 1 toe in the water
The short hike along the Rio Grande to the Hot Spring was one of my FAVORITES. Short hike for a BIG reward. The area leading down to the parking lot is snug... real snug so drive slow and careful. I don't think a large SUV or large truck would fit on these roads. After parking, you walk for maybe 10 minutes to the spring. Along the hike, pay attention to the cliffside as you can find Native American rock art! In the early 1900's a man named J.O Langford discovered (well, rediscovered) that there was a natural hot springs bubbling up along the Rio Grande. At this time, many natural hot springs across the US were visited for their "healing powers." Langford had been suffering from ailments and after spending time in the waters, claimed he was healed. He constructed a bathhouse over this spring which attracted visitors all over the US and Mexico. This spot became so popular that a post office and motel were erected shortly after! You can still see the post office to this day. The view from this spring evokes an emotion inside that isn't easy to describe. Here, along the border of US and Mexico, separated by the Rio Grande, you feel the magic of this land. What this land was intended to be. No border wars, smuggling, drugs, and killing. Just the beauty and peace of what God created this land to be. You have to experience it for yourself.
US on the left of the river and Mexico is on the right. Seriously so beautiful
The post office
There is also a large canyon that the Rio Grander runs through called the Santa Elena Canyon. In dry weather you can hike further in to the canyon and even kayak along the river. If you want to kayak, I recommend booking that with a tour guide in advance. My husband (boyfriend at the time) and I planned this to be a 3 mile in and out hike. However, due to the rain it would have involved us crossing a creek over a foot deep, which we weren't that interested in since we didn't have a change of socks or shoes and had dinner plans in Terlingua after. Funny story here. Jeff had every intention of proposing to me at certain spot on the original hike. He had told himself he had a mile and a half to compose his thoughts and hype himself up. Well, we got about 8 minutes in to our hike when we realized we weren't going to cross the water. Jeff started to get sooo anxious, pacing back and forth and I couldn't understand why. He had realized he didn't have as much time as he originally planned so he had to improvise. He set up the tripod to take some photos and finally dropped to one knee. Such a sweet and memorable moment I’ll treasure forever <3
Have you been to Big Bend? If so, what was your favorite part?! Comment below and let me know!
xoxo- Victoria