Road Trip to Houston: Big Bend National Park Arrival

Day 12 – Del Rio to Lajitas, TX

I have picked up a cold along the way, but it has been fairly light so it hasn’t bothered me, but last night I coughed all night and neither Val or I got much sleep.  We slept in to try to catch up on our sleep and finally got on the road around 10 AM.  Today we would be once again following US-90 for most of the day.

The countryside we have been driving through has been mainly flat, but today as we drove west we got into more and more hilly country.  There was very little traffic so we made good time, though we did have to go through an immigration check at one point.  The route we are following is very close to the Mexican border so we see border patrol vehicles everywhere.  We finally could see some mountains in the distance and we knew we were getting close to Big Bend National Park.

When we reached the town of Marathon we left US-90 and turned south for the 70 mile drive to Big Bend National Park.  There is a lodge in the park, but it was fully booked during our visit so we opted to stay at the Lajitas Resort in the small town of Lajitas west of the park.  Since the quickest way to get to Lajitas was through the park, we got to see some of the park on our way.  The country, though a little mountainous, is a desert and very arid.  We understand that in about a month the cactus and wildflowers will be blooming, but now there is not much color.  It is surprisingly green though, as the scrub is leafed out in green.

We stopped at the Visitor’s Center, checked out the displays and bought a guide for the back roads in the park before heading on to Lajitas.  Lajitas is about 20 miles outside the west entrance to the park, but it is the closest place to stay if you can’t stay in the park.  We will be staying at the Lajitas Resort, which is supposed to be pretty nice.

By the time we got checked in and in our room it was 4:00 and we rested until dinner; we were both still tired after our lack of sleep last night.  We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant which was very good.  This hotel is nothing fancy, but is very nice.  Tomorrow we will be exploring the park.

Some of the rooms at the Lajistas Resort

 

It was a beautiful, balmy evening so we had dinner out on the veranda.