An Unexpectedly Thrilling Drive

April 29, 2013

We knew the drive we planned to take on 170 out of Terlingua up to Fort Davis was a scenic drive, but we didn’t realize just how dramatic it would be. This drive—the “River Road” to/from Big Bend National Park—has been designated by National Geographic as one of the most scenic drives in North America, and we see why. Unfortunately, our photos don’t do it justice, as they just can’t depict the vast emptiness and stillness and jawdropping 360-degree views. The road winds through Big Bend Ranch State Park, a relatively new park that is next door to the national park, and follows the Rio Grande River for about 60 miles. This state park is much less developed than the National Park (which hardly seems developed at all). 

As we drive along, scenes like this just keep changing and changing.

One of the exciting (terrifying??) things about the drive is that the road hasn’t been smoothed out much; it follows the contours of the land, going steeply down into the canyons and then straight up the mountain, so it’s like a rollercoaster ride. At the top of the hills, you can’t see the road ahead of you, and it feels like you might drop off into emptiness (like it feels when you start down our driveway at home, except this goes on for miles). 

 

The road zig-zags around mountains wherever it can.

At every bend and drop, you encounter a completely different, stunning view of mountain and river vistas with carved, sculpted, rocky mountains of just about every possible color and shape that rock can assume. I just can’t come up with words to describe this drive—and you’re probably getting tired of me trying.  But it was unbelievable.

Eventually the road just goes up and over the mountains.

We stopped at a few places to try to capture the beauty of the place. In one canyon where we stopped, a single dove was calling and the call echoed and was amplified by the rock walls—very eerie. We were the only car on the road, and the silence, other than the dove call, was almost heavy in your ears. This is WILD country, and we’re so glad it’s being preserved in its wild state.

Before heading up over the mountain, we stop to see how the Rio Grande cuts through the mountain and listen to a lone dove's calls echoing through the canyon. There are no other sounds. We love wild places like this.

As we descend down one of the mountains, we stop at one of the unique rest stops.

After we left the state park, we drove through the small town of Presidio, and had lunch at El Patio, a restaurant on the main drag, that had been recommended to us. Food was Mexican, of course, and tasty. It seemed that everyone else in the restaurant was Hispanic and everyone but us was speaking Spanish. Hard to tell this place from a Mexican town.

Next we headed to an RV campground in Fort Davis, which is near the Davis Mountains state park with reported good birding, and also near the McDonald Observatory, which we plan to check out tomorrow. They have star parties on Tuesday evenings and we hope to view the heavens through some of their famous telescopes. This area has the best dark sky viewing in the lower 48, we hear.

  

After leaving Presidio we get stopped at a border control check point

Fort Davis is quaint, historic and filled with birds. We just sat outside the RoadTrek for a couple of hours and watched the birds in the trees around us. I’m still hoping for the painted bunting…we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

State count: 8 [Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas]

Odometer count:

Surber, VA: 107,435

Fort Davis, TX: 110,921

Accommodations avg cost: 25 nights @ $15.76/night

Where we are: