(January 2010) Annette and I like to spend the holidays in warmer climates and have driven to the Big Bend country the last few years to camp and ride bicycles. We just returned from another trip along the Rio Grande camping on the river and up in the mesa lands of Big Bend Ranch. Some of the camping was very isolated along the Chispa Road north of Candelaria, Texas and in the backcountry of the Ranch State Park. We spent a couple of nights at Rio Grande Village across the border from Boquillas, Coahuila including New Year’s eve. It’s unfortunate that the border is now closed to casual traffic and all crossings must be either at Presidio/Ojinaga or Del Rio/Ciudad Acuna. Even though we were no more than a mile from Boquillas we couldn’t cross and missed what sounded like a great party over there.
There is lots of good bicycle riding in that country and the weather cooperates at this time of year. I rode trails in the Ranch State park on the mountain bike and the paved roads in the national park on the cross bike. Great ride tip: Rio Grande Village to Chisos Mountain Lodge and back, 60 miles, 5000 feet of climbing.
I really like this border country. It’s the haunts of the characters of Cormac McCarthy; No Country for Old Men to the East – All the Pretty Horses and Cities of the Plain to the West.