West Texas and Big Bend Country
In far West Texas you will find a much different countryside from any other area in Texas. From tall desert mountains, large valleys, desert vistas, an International border and so much else. You can see the famous Marfa Lights and follow the trail of old West Legends. There are frontier forts to visit and you can see the home of two US Presidents. There is a meteor crater, huge sands dunes and you can see a museum about the Oil Industry that heavily drives the local economy in the Permian Basin. Its an area where you can get away from everyone and truly be alone. We visited the area for the first time in September of 2020 so things were a little different than a normal but we still really enjoyed the trip and would like to go back again at some point.
Getting to West Texas and Transportation
There are a few ways to get to the very expansive West Texas area but each of them will take you some time. You could drive to the area but unless you live in New Mexico it will be around an 8 to 9 hour drive from places like Houston. There are two airports you could fly into in the area with commercial flights. The Midland International Air and Space Port is a good place to fly into and makes Big Bend National Park only a few hours drive away. The other airport option is El Paso International Airport and is about an equal distance from Big Bend. We flew Southwest into Midland and rented a car. The Midland airport is relatively small with only 4 or 5 gates and its very easy to get in and out of. The rental car center is right outside the airport so you can walk to your car. The last option is you could take Amtrak to a station such as Alpine, TX but I could foresee issues renting a car in the small city. For transportation your only option is driving yourself throughout this very large area.
Midland-Odessa, TX
The largest cities in the areas we visited was Midland and Odessa. Located in the center of the Permian Basin the cities are the center of oil drilling operations in the area. There are some interesting sights in the area to see if you make it there before heading off into the much less populated Big Bend area. There are plenty of restaurants and hotels in the area in case you want to spend the night. Some of the sights to visit are the Petroleum Museum, The George W. Bush Boyhood home, The Odessa Meteor Crater, The Midland Army Air Field Museum, and a few other museums and parks you can visit. One item we found is the Midland-Odessa area is quite dirty with trash littering many of the rough damaged roads. Its worth visiting for sure but be prepared to see things like mattresses and old tires lying around in areas such as near the Odessa Meteor Crater.
The Petroleum Museum
A museum that is dedicated to the history of the Permian Basin (once a shallow sea in ancient times), the Midland-Odessa area, and the extraction of oil. Its a very well done museum with many video, interactive exhibits and information about the oil industry and the difficult process of oil drilling. The museum has exhibits such as a game where you try to drill and face tough decisions that can affect if the well is good or not. There is a ride where you search for oil in a high tech spacecraft. The museum highlights all the different job opportunities you can find in the industry and the global nature of the companies involved in Oil and Gas. It also goes over all the products that depend on the industry and the efforts to make the industry greener. There is also an exhibit on Midland’s Chaparral Racing and they have some of the cars that were built for different types of racing. Out side of the museum they have a great display of different oil equipment such as drills and rigs from over the years. The museum is a great place to visit in Midland and will teach you a lot about the Oil and Gas industry and the area. It will take a couple hours to visit and there is a small entrance fee.
George W. Bush Boyhood Home
Located closer to downtown Midland in an neighborhood you will find the former home of two future Presidents and two Governors. In the 1950s George H. W. Bush started an oil exploration company and moved to Midland. He bought this home where their young family lived for several years. You can tour the home where the rooms have been refurbished to take you back to the 1950s. You can see the room where a young George W. Bush played and see some of the toys he might have played with (they are not original to the family). There are a few exhibits about Baseball (a passion of the Bushes’) and the families time in Midland. The ticket office and gift shop are across the street from the home and parking is down the street (across from a church). The tour will take an hour or less and there is a small charge. Its a great place to re-live the early days of two of our countries presidents.
The Odessa Meteor Crater
Located a little South of Odessa you will find the second largest intact meteor crater in the United States. The largest is found in Northern Arizona. You can distinctly see the rim of the crater where this relatively new crater was formed. The crater was deeper but overtime it has been filled in some by dirt from wind and rain. There is a nice little museum that give a history of the crater and of other meteor strikes around the world. You can walk into the crater but the trail was closed when we visited due to recent rain. On the way out be sure and watch for signs noting how far the planets are from the sun. This site is completely free to visit and will take you 30 minutes to an hour to visit.
Monahans Sandhills State Park
Located 30 minutes South West of Odessa you can visit another unique park. The Monahans Sandhills State Park is full of desert Sand Dunes that looks like something out of a movie or a the Sahara Desert. The park has camping grounds, a visitors center (its currently closed due to Covid-19) and plenty of hiking trails in the desert Sand Dunes. The driving part of the tour is not too long but there are a lot of areas to hike. We spent some time walking in the large area of sand dunes and could see tracks in the sand where small animals had been (most likely at night). We saw some people sledding down the Sand Dunes. There is also a relic of the rail road days in a small home used by the railroad you can visit. We spent about an hour at the park exploring the Sand Dunes before we headed to our next stop and our hotel for the night.
Fort Stockton
Located a little over an hour South of Midland-Odessa and around 2 hours to main visitors center in Big Bend. Fort Stockton is on I-10 and has some nice hotels to stay in. We stayed in the Hampton Inn by Hilton in Fort Stockton. Its a small city like most are in the West Texas area but there are a few interesting places to visit in Fort Stockton. You can see the World’s Largest Road Runner called Pasiano Pete. You can also visit the remains of the old frontier fort that started the city of Fort Stockton. There are a couple other museums in the city as well. While in Fort Stockton we ate at a nice restaurant that served southern home cooking. We enjoyed the Sagebrush Cafe while in town and especially liked the fried okra.
Big Bend National Park
One of the gems of Texas is the Big Bend National Park. Its far away from any large cities and the closest small town (Marathon) is an hour a way from the main visitors center. The park borders Mexico as the Rio Grande River runs through the southern portion of the park. I heavily recommend if you are coming from Fort Stockton or another city North of Big Bend to make sure you have enough fuel to get into the park. There is a gas station at the Panther Junction Visitors center but beyond that its quite desolate. There are multiple trails and roads you can drive on throughout the park. In the park there are rugged mountains and valleys, desert plains, and an international border. Our first stop in the park was to visit a very nice outdoor museum about the ancient dinosaur life that was in the park. There are quite a few bones and stories about the fossils in the park. You can hike up to a small hill to see the former dig site. At the main visitor’s center at Panther Junction (we could not enter the visitors center due to Covid-19) there is a nice trail where you can see many different types of desert plants such as cacti. We took a drive South to visit the border. There is a nice overlook we stopped at where you can look into Mexico and the general area. Its a vast and rugged territory with very little infrastructure or cities. It has beauty though and its nice to be in true silence away from everything like that. We got very close to the Rio Grande and we could see the small Mexican city of Boquillas del Carmen in the distance. In normal times you can pay $5 for a roundtrip row boat ride to the small Mexican city for a visit and some time to eat and shop. When we visited the border was closed so no crossings where allowed. You do have to have a passport to cross. Sadly the scenic drive that takes you through the Chisos Mountains towards Santa Elena Canyon was closed when we visited so we did not get to see all of the park. It would take you multiple days to see a fraction of the massive park so we saw all that we could and did some hiking on our day trip. Thankfully a cold front had come through so it was cooler in the park but normally it can be dangerously hot so they recommend being off the trails by 10 am. For Big Bend at the very least you need to leave a full day to visit the park and there is a $30 charge per car to visit. We hope to make it back at some point to explore this great park!
Marfa Lights Viewing Area
A few miles to the East of the city of Marfa on US 90 you will find a small park that at night is very crowded with people trying to spot the mysterious Marfa lights. The lights have said to have been seen out in the desert for over 100 years and what they are have not been completely solved. Some think its gasses in the desert, others think it is just car lights in the distance so the debate continues. We visited that evening after our day at Big Bend and we did see lights in the distance moving side to side and going up and down. I cannot say for sure if they were just cars or something else but it was interesting to watch. The viewing area is free and is a small park with historical signs explaining the area. There is a restroom there as well. We spent a little less than an hour watching the lights. At night the area is extremely dark and the desert animals are out at night so drive carefully if you visit!
Fort Davis National Historic Site
This very well maintained and interpreted frontier Fort is located North of the Big Bend area in the city named after the Fort. The Fort is pretty large and there are many remaining buildings. This Fort was a frontier Fort to protect the San Antonio-El Paso road from Native American or bandit attacks. The US Army and for a time the Confederate Army held the Fort in the 1800s. On one side of the large parade grounds (where the troops marched and practiced) there are long enlisted man barracks that have some great exhibits on the weapons and the different troops that garrisoned the fort such as the famed Buffalo Soldiers. There are other buildings to tour (some are closed due to Covid-19 at the moment) such as the commissary and there are foundation ruins of some buildings. On the other side of the parade grounds you will find the much more opulent officers homes. Many of the homes are empty but they have refurbished two homes you can visit. One is like a home with one officer and his family and the second is a shared house with lower two ranking officers and their family. One officer was single and the other had a family. Behind the officers quarters you can visit the large Hospital complex. Be sure and take some time to read about several people that used the hospital for various ailments before going to the hospital. They have signs telling stories about the illness or injury that sent them to the hospital such as being kicked by a horse, heartburn or a serious illness. While in the hospital in the exhibits you can read about what their fate was (some survived and others did not). There are also trails that will take you up the small cliffs/mountains that are around the fort to an overlook. There are also a couple of horses roaming the park that we did see. There is a museum and a video but it was closed due to Covid-19 but the gift shop was open. Its a very nice site and a chance to go back to the Wild West Frontier days in Texas. It will take a couple hours to visit and there is a small entrance fee.
Other Sights to See and Tips
The Big Bend and the Permian Basin is a very large area and while much of the landscape is very desolate there is still a lot more to do. Near Fort Davis you can visit the McDonald Observatory on the nearby mountains. On certain nights they throw Star Parties where people can look through telescopes and learn more about our universe. We did not have the chance to visit it on our short weekend trip. In Pecos, you can visit the West of the Pecos Museum that includes a replica of the Judge Roy Bean courthouse and is the final resting place of gunfighter Clay Allison. We visited this site but the museum was closed. Across the street in an old rail station in Pecos there is the Texas Rodeo Hall of Fame. You can visit the Prada art display West of Marfa in Valentine or Tiny Target East of Alpine. There are many other small museums and sights to see in the area. For us the best cities to stay in was Fort Stockton and Alpine that both had Hilton Brand hotels (Hampton Inns) and had a good number of eating choices. Other cities have hotels but are quite a bit smaller. You will want to plan ahead when visiting the area as the drives can be long between attractions so you will want to be ready for that. Also being in the desert you will want to pay attention to the weather and the heat when planning. Bring or buy water when going to the parks. With cities few are far between you will want to watch your gas levels as there are miles of ranch land you will pass with no where to stop. Its a great and completely different side of Texas where you can truly get away from everything. We hope to go back at some point in the future!
