As the temperatures spike in the park how about a cool season trip report? This is a trip from 2004 but TWWG urged me to post it because it is a wide expanse of the park that most people never hike. I had always eyed the across the park walk ever since reading the "Cross the Park Hike" description from the Big Bend Natural History Assoc. 1971 Hikers Guide:
"Between Stillwell Crossing (Adam's Ranch) and Lajitas is another possibility. The route, east to west, is a logical six-day trip as follows: from Adams' Ranch to Roy's Peak, via Telephone Canyon Trail on the first day; to Dugout on the second day; to Upper Juniper Spring, if you wish to hike over the mountains, on the third day (or you may follow the Outer Mountain Loop route to the spring west of the Dodson Place, or go all the way to Blue Creek); another day to Blue Creek via Boot Canyon and South Rim scenic loop; another day to Luna'a via the Chimney Trail; and the last day to Lajitas. Water and food could be cached at Roy's Peak, Blue Creek Ranch, and Luna's."
Six days is some serious walking and I wanted to do it in about 10 so we could enjoy and explore. By the time we flew in from North Carolina, drove to and from the park and got set up it would be 13-14 days, I couldn't ever get anyone to take enough time off to do the whole thing so I broke it down into Eastern and Western halves.
Finally in Dec. 2004 the time had come for the first half; my intent was to walk across the entire eastern side of the park from Boquillas at the Strawhouse trailhead to the Basin, about 60 miles. My partner in this adventure was a friend from here in NC, we had hiked together in the Grand Canyon and we share a love for Texas music but he had never been to Big Bend. I picked him up at the Austin airport and we stopped by Luckenbach for a beer and hoping to hear some good music but the music was not great so we headed on west to Ft. Stockton for the night.
The next morning we made it to the park early and got our permit (the rangers couldn't believe what I wanted to do), set a cache of food and water at Dug Out Wells which was about the half way point and then had time to show him around the park (western side all the way to Santa Elena canyon). We made it to Study Butte in time to check in with the Far Flung Adventures who was to shuttle us to the trail head in the morning (they couldn't believe what I wanted to do but were more than willing to take our money). We checked into the Easter Egg Valley/Chisos Mining Co. Motel to sort equipment and pack. On over to La Kiva for a beer and then to the Starlight Theater in Terlingua for dinner and some fair music from an imported Austin musician.
Early in the morning we made our way, through breakfast at Ms. Tracy’s, to the Basin to meet our shuttle.
We filled our water bottles (almost 3 gallons each) for the first 2 and a half waterless days, mailed post cards and called the girls. The shuttle driver was early and he couldn't believe what I wanted to do (by this time my partner is beginning to wonder what he had gotten himself into).
On the trail by 11:00 headed north on the Strawhouse trail through Ernst Valley. Clear as a bell and in the 60's. Ernst Valley is a wide dry place between ridges of the Dead Horse Mtns. Three beautiful narrow canyon sections punctuate the trail
with the last one choked with large boulders that needed to be worked around. At one of those negotiations my partner slipped while trying to avoid some thorny brush and fell backward about 8 feet but landed mostly on his sumptuous pack and came out just scraped up a bit. We stopped on a nice wide gravelly spot in the wash for the night (~about 7 miles today and it ended up being the hottest day at 84 degrees).
The wind picked up over night and was to be with us, irritatingly, for the next day and half. Day two and we head on up to the top of Ernst Valley where we passed the only water we would see on this far side of the park
and the route became obscure (these trails are not marked and just routes, mostly up washes). It took some time to get to the top (I kept telling him I was 85% sure of where we were) but found a large cairn there that assured us we were in the right place.
On down the other side and into Telephone Canyon. We were headed west now towards the head of the canyon on the wide and braided bottom of the canyon (think Alaskan glacial rivers without water).
We made good time to the bottom of the climb out and over the Dead Horse Mtns. This "trail" was the first marked section we had been on but was still difficult to find in spots, we made it up to the top where we intended to camp so we could take in the massive views west over the entire park.
The winds where whipping up to 40mph so we took a short break out of the wind to enjoy the views then headed down the other side to find a camp out of the worst of the winds (they blew all night even down where we camped). ~13.5 miles today.
Third day and the winds were slowing down as we continued on west on the Telephone canyon trail to its terminus at the Telephone Canyon backcountry roadside campsite. We then started the first of our true cross country routes, around and past Roy’s Peak and down a wash with beautiful views and the first running water in 3 days.
to Tornillo Creek just upstream from Banta Shut-In. The route finding was easy and we made it into camp early so we had time to explore the area. Tornillo creek drains the entire eastern side of the park and was running like a trout stream. Banta Shut-In is/was a lava intrusion that forced the stream into a very narrow and deep passage. Very cool. We camped on a wide sandy bench above the creek and enjoyed the sound of the stream and the now calm winds. ~ 7 miles today.
