Re: [A/S] Travel to Big Bend N P

[" Dean Sale pgtv" <deansale@xxxxxxxx>]

Near twenty years condensed to a page.

At Santa Elena Canyon sometimes Terlingua creek has water.  Walk across
Terlingua creek and Southward along the West (Texas) side of Santa Elena
Canyon about a mile. From there you can float out of the canyon eastward in
an inner-tube.  In the '70's the rangers caught us once and said that was a
no-no.  Traveling without a trailer in tow Maverick road from near Study
Butte is only about eighteen miles from Santa Elena Canyon. The gradient is
not so steep. The main road from near Panther Junction to Castalon / Santa
Elena Canyon has a steep pull back out and is about sixty miles long.  I
pulled a 17' Caravel on the Maverick road many times back years ago. The 27'
only went in and out once. The back end would drag. Off of Maverick road
about four or five miles from the south end is a turnoff to a place called
Terlingua Abaja. Any trailer longer than 17' or 18' will not make the curves
getting in.  Terlingua creek passes behind the back of Baja Terlingua.
There is a swimming hole in the creek on the West side near some willow
trees. The water is about 100 degrees in the summer and is the coolest thing
around.  The water percolates into the depression even when there is no
water at the surface of the creek.

Going to Hot Springs in the park; the road is one way, there is one road in
and another out.  The roads are curved with walls on one side and hard to
negotiate with a trailer in tow.

Castalon campground did not have any hookups other than water.  You can park
under the trees.  It was always fairly deserted.  Fishing for Rio Grande
catfish from the bank was allowed in the '80's.  There are rattlesnakes at
the Castalon campground.  Rio Grand Village Campground near Boquillas is all
asphalted in just like the city steets you left behind to get to the park.

The Study Butte Store outside the park boundary westward has a fair
selection of mostly beer, bread, ice-cream and dried jerked meat. There are
tables on the front porch of the store.  Settin' there is fun but mostly
locals do it to look at tourists.  I was not a tourist there. I spent the
better part of the '70's and '80's near Study Butte and the park.

Old ore road was impassable most of the time.  If you can get to Earnst
Tinija it is a small pool of impounded water about one half mile from old
ore road. Don't fall in. There are neat rocks there.

There is a place, a beer joint and trailer park the "Kiva" I think, that has
a Laundromat / shower.  This is about six or eight miles westward from the
town of Study Butte.  There is a restaurant at the Terlingua mine site
called the "Starlight Saloon" Friday and Saturday nights there are musicians
there.  One night Willie Nelson was there and there were only twenty or so
folks in audience. He has been there more than once.  There is a roof on the
restaurant now but they still call it the Starlight Saloon.

One of the handy things to have around is several rolls of quarters for the
laundry machines.  Carry a lot of ones and fives too.  Most of the time all
those business folks hurt for change.  They may have to sell you $20.00
worth of beer because they don't have change :)

We always took a flat of strawberries, tomatoes or eggplant and gave it to
the folks that run the Desert Deli Diner sorta as a tip after we settled up
our bill.  The last time I was there in the late '90's they were closed.
Give 'em something they have a hard time finding and you will be their
friend forever.

If you want to have a real good time take a water faucet on about three feet
of pipe and drive it in the ground in one of the back country campgrounds.
Then sit back with your camera.  This can lead to a fight so you gotta do it
on the sly.  I always carry several in the locker under the bed. They come
from house demolishers.

Over the years I have used up a lot of 4x5 and 8x10 black and white film at
the Mariscal mine site on the River Road.  No trailers there either. There
is a back country campground near.

Back to Terlingua Abaja.  West past Terlingua (this is about a one quarter
mile walk) there remains ruins of a farming village.  The adobe houses have
long lost the wood around the windows and the doors and roofs. The dirt
farmers that could not leave any other way were buried in graves  with
wooden crosses.  All that valley near the Rio Grande and up Terlingua creek
was farmed by folks trying to scratch out a living or just an existence in
the desert.  I found a circle of rocks there about thirty feet in diameter.
The rocks are about a foot across. If you can figger' out what they were for
I would like to know.  I toted a ten foot step ladder in one time so I could
take pictures of that circle of rocks. They may have been placed there as a
joke. Maybe the farmer kids used them for games. I don't know and when I
asked in the '70's I just got strange looks from the folks at Study Butte.

The present folks at Study Butte are try to scratch out a living in a sparce
land too.

Dean