Spring break in Big Bend is one of my favorite destinations. While that time of year is one of their busiest, it pales in comparison to the number of visitors for other national and state parks. You don’t have to hike very long to escape the few crowds and feel lost in the miles of desert carved out by the Rio Grande River. Spring temperatures are much more pleasant and the cacti and wildflowers are in full bloom.   As the sun sets painting the sky with unbelievable colors, the dark skies give way to stars unending. It just never gets old.

A lesser-known park is the Big Bend Ranch State Park, which is next to the National Park. With over 311,000 acres it is the largest state park in Texas and it offers hiking and mountain biking trails, jeep roads and beautiful drives.

To be positioned for maximizing your time at Big Bend Ranch State Park I recommend staying in Lajitas. For those desiring nicer accommodations, the Lajitas Golf Resort and Spa offers more upscale lodging, dining, and golfing on the “Most Beautiful Course in Texas”. If you want to spend less dollars, my favorite place to stay is the Maverick Ranch RV Park. Their sites have a beautiful backdrop and they share some of the same amenities with the resort.

One of the easiest ways to skirt the perimeter of the park is to drive from Lajitas to Presidio. National Geographic calls it one of the most scenic drives in America. There are many opportunities to pull over for views or to hike. Plan to spend most of the day to fully appreciate its beauty. I recommend starting at the Barton Warnock Visitor Center to pay your entrance fees and obtain a map. It is worth spending an hour here to see all their exhibits and to tour the 2-acre desert garden. My favorite stops along the drive include hiking Closed Canyon and the Balanced Rock Trail. The Contrabondo movie set and Fort Leaton State Historic Site are great places to tour as well.

To fully appreciate the scale of this state park, you should reserve a full day for Sauceda, the heart of the park. The drive from Lajitas to the Sauceda Visitor Center takes about 2 hrs and 15 minutes. The road is not paved once you leave FM170. Thankfully, there are bathroom stops along the drive. My family arrived on New Years day in 2015 for a ranger hike. Due to a huge winter storm, the power was out. We were welcomed into to the bunkhouse where a roaring fire provided an escape from the cold temperatures and a place to eat our lunch. There are no longer food services provided at this location. They were in the process of converting the kitchen to communal so that residents of the bunkhouse could prepare their own meals. The bunkhouse is a great deal at $35/night. I also toured the historic ranch house, which offered rooms you could rent at $100/night. The whole location was an experience! I hope to return to stay at the home and arrange for a ranger led tour for the day. My boys enjoyed riding the bike trails nearby.

Other activities I recommend while at Lajitas are riding the nearby mountain biking trails by the airport and the Contraband trail in the state park. Mark Flippo, a retired park ranger, is an excellent guide for birding expeditions in Big Bend National Park area.  It was amazing the number of birds he found and taught me about! Renting a jeep for the 4X4 roads and ATV tours can round out your experience in this incredible desert landscape! Once you get a taste of this vast wilderness, it is hard to forget it…