Big Bend, Marfa & Alpine
Big Bend National Park and the Chisos, the river road through Big Bend Ranch, Terlingua, Fort Leaton and Presidio, Alpine's Museum of the Big Bend and Marfa and its lights.
The Rio Grande swings through a long bend here, around the emptiest country in Texas. Big Bend National Park, opened in 1944, covers more than 1,250 square miles of the Chihuahuan Desert, with the Chisos Mountains in the middle and the river cutting Santa Elena, Mariscal and Boquillas canyons along its edge. Roads lead to the Chisos Basin, to Castolon's old store and army camp, and to Santa Elena Canyon. At Boquillas a port of entry lets visitors with passports cross by rowboat to the Mexican village.
West of the park, Terlingua was a quicksilver mining town, and FM 170 follows the river past Lajitas through Big Bend Ranch State Park, the largest park in the state system, to Presidio. Farmers have worked the river bottom where the Rio Conchos joins the Rio Grande since long before the Spanish came, and Jumano people lived there. Ben Leaton's adobe fort of 1848 stands on the bluff below Presidio.
The towns are up on the high plain to the north. Alpine has Sul Ross State University and the Museum of the Big Bend. Marfa began in 1883 as a railroad water stop, drew the makers of Giant in 1955 and later the artist Donald Judd. East of town on US-90, a state viewing center looks out over the flat where people have watched the Marfa lights since the 1880s.
What to See in Big Bend, Marfa & Alpine
11 places across the region, grouped by what they are.
Geology & Rock Formations
Natural Areas
Historic Sites
Towns & Gateways
Architecture
Big Bend, Marfa & Alpine rewards the unhurried. Pick a base, fan out, and let the country between the headline stops surprise you.
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