Big Bend resort combines the Old West with luxury
Lajitas has typical high-end features, plus special Texas touches
12:00 AM CST on Sunday, March 11, 2007
By MARIA SMITH / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
LAJITAS, Texas – When I saw my husband kick open a saloon door and open fire with a six-shooter, I knew we were in cowboy heaven.
Lajitas resort, tucked between Big Bend national and state parks, offers typical high-end amenities (golf, spa and plush rooms) but with a Texas touch. You'll also find horseback riding, hunting and shooting in a special range fashioned like an Old West town.
Roughing it in Big Bend isn't everyone's cup of tea. But Lajitas, a recent designee to the Leading Hotels of the World group, is the ideal way to explore this region, while enjoying a luxurious hotel-ranch-spa. And with so much to do, it suits everyone in the family, from outdoor types to foodies and those who want to be pampered.
The resort boasts 92 rooms and suites and a growing real estate development. Local outfitters provide opportunities for exploring the rugged terrain that surrounds the tiny town. And it really is a town, with a cemetery dating from frontier times. Lajitas' history spans more than a century as a military outpost and trading center, and resort architects have masterfully blended the surviving buildings (many designated National Historic Landmarks) with new structures to preserve and enhance the Old West feel.
Guest rooms range from large suites to two-bedroom condos. The accommodations continue the Western motif with rustically elegant wooden furniture, branding iron and saddle decorations, and period tile work. The beds are blissful. Exposed timber, rough-hewn picture frames and solid (yet very comfortable) lobby furniture add to the authenticity.
But you haven't come this far to stay inside.
The 7,400-yard, par 71 golf course makes good use of the Rio Grande and the Chisos Mountains foothills, providing challenge and beauty in equal measures. A unique feature of the course is hole 11A, a par 1 with the tee in the U.S. and the bowl-shape green across the Rio Grande in Mexico. It is a witty, one-shot-only nod to the resort's location.
The equestrian center boasts one of the nation's largest cutting-horse schools. Guests can ride, enjoy demonstrations, watch a rodeo or learn to use a bullwhip. The center also offers packages with longer rides, cookouts and overnight camping trips.
Nature lovers will marvel at the bird-watching at the La Playa Preserve. For archaeology buffs, there are fossil hikes. Mountain bikers can bring their equipment or rent for wild-as-you-want expeditions into the barren foothills and mountains at the resort's doorstep. Biking and hiking are plentiful, and trails are marked and well-mapped.
The nearby 650-acre hunt club offers half-day or full-day excursions. Private parties stay overnight (or longer) and enjoy comfortable beds, warm showers and gourmet meals when they aren't pursuing game.
Our favorite excursion, a sunset jeep tour, took us on a jarring ride in an open vehicle to the top of a mesa. At the windy summit, we enjoyed cheese and Chilean shiraz while the sun dipped below distant mountains. By the time we got back to the resort, the black night sky was awash with stars.
Lajitas continues its upscale cowboy theme in its restaurants. It shines in the dinner-only Ocotillo, an intimate stage for executive chef Albert Cannito. The menu offers a range of game, from buffalo steak (perfectly complemented with a Stilton cheese sauce) to wild boar osso bucco and grilled venison chops. Duck pot stickers, cactus salad, fresh fish and a vegetarian option round out the choices.
For a special meal, book the small chef's table in the kitchen, where diners have a ringside seat to all the action and first tastes of the chef's fancy. The restaurant also boasts a smokehouse and a second-level observatory that overlooks the banks of the Rio Grande.
Every night, guests find the next day's activities detailed in a newsletter left on their pillow.
Spa offerings include a 90-minute Ultimate Facial (well-named) and the Agave Skin Soother, a body wrap inspired by the Chihuahuan Desert. The spa uses agave products and the exclusive Pevonia line.
The Flat Rock Theater features first-run movies (kids' selections, too) and cooking demonstrations in a dedicated culinary arts center. There are wine tastings at the Ocotillo Bar, guitar lessons, woodcarving, history lectures, aromatherapy seminars in the spa, and mixology classes and salsa lessons in the Thirsty Goat Saloon.
But my husband was game for Cowboy Action Shooting.
Guests indulge their Western fantasies as well-versed cowboys provide instruction and supervision for guests who fire a six-shooter, a rifle and a shotgun in a series of artfully re-created scenarios in a remote corner of the resort. The barroom shootout my husband so enjoyed was one of five still- and moving-target setups designed to challenge and inspire modern cowboys.
Before they head to the spa.
Rooms start at $175 per night. Packages are available on the Web site (
www.lajitas.com). The resort offers many activities, including some suitable for children. Prices range from $75 for an hour of Cowboy Action Shooting to $275 for a half-day of dove hunting.
Maria Smith is a Dallas freelance writer.
