Big Bend NAtional Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park

3 days of fantastic riding in BB National and State PArks! More to come. Here is a teaser.

Nice... was this the annual "Houston Area Trail Riders" excursion I keep hearing about?

I really need to man up and pay the $450/yr for a membership and access to the skull creek property.

very cool! would love to be back in texas .. just curious, did you guys get stopped/questioned by border patrol (or any mexican cartel)? see any copperheads? i used to see copperheads all the time when out riding in east texas (back in the 80's in my teen years)

rattle snakes are more common where he was at... an occasional scorpion.

This was the Two Wheeled Texans (TWT) ride . http://www.twtex.com/forums/index.php forum link. Richard of Texas Adventure organizes rides from this forum. It is a really really great group of folks. About 75 riders. Both dual sport and pavement bikes attend. It is an annual event and very very fun.

I think it is still too cool for snakes to be out and about. Did not see any.

Only got stopped on the hiway check point when we were headed home in th etruck.

Good stuff. That's a great bunch on TWT. A few of them have been PMing with me to assist in plating my 2-smoke.

I'm looking forward to doing the East Texas 450 with a rotopax full of oil :)

Day 1

Coming to St. Elena Canyon. RIo Grand River runs through this thing. MExico on left, USA on right.


Followed the Rio Grand for maybe 40 miles . Here are the views:











Then we turned north onto a 4 wheel drive only trail. This thing deteriated rapidly from this point. You really do need a 4 wheeler, or a dual sport moto!
There was a Vstrom 650 tagging along with us. He got off the edge and very nearly ended up at the bottom of a very tall cliff. Not really verticle, but steep enough you would not be able to walk down.




End of dirt Day 1. It was 90 miles between gas, food, watter......nuthing.

On Day 2 we first road a 26 mile long jeep trail in the eastern part of Big Bend. Then we rode a sceenic county road north of Terlingua where we were staying. Just really excellent riding and sceenery. The weather was very good. Started out at about 50 degrees and topped out at about 90.

Jeep Road. Views.

Here is Tink. My desert flower! At start of jeep road.



Start of the trsil.


Nice riding! It gets rougher. You get up on this stuff then every once in while dive down into a ravine or stream bed.









Then we went to the sceenic county road north of Terlingua.





Just a fantastic day!

On Day 3 we headed to Big Bend Ranch State Park. That place is covered with jeep trails. There was a hill that last year was named King Kong Hill. The rumors were that only about 50% of the folks make it to the top, riding that is. Well we wanted to give her a go.

I did not get many pics of the Ranch. But we went to a hill that some guys swore was King Kong. The rangers even pointed us to this hill. It cetaily was a challenging one. Long, steep, big rocks, loose deep dirt with mixed in big rocks. Most of us made it up , even the KLR's. We were all feeling real proud.. Here's the view from the top.

You can see the trail in the distance.



We found out latter, this was not King Kong Hill! We were pissed. So we decided to name this hill Donky Kong Hill. Next year I will find the King!

We headed out of the Ranch on some fast gravel roads. About 25 miles out to the hiway. The jeep roads in the ranck were very rocky. After bouncying around on those rocks for several hours, the gravel road felt like a super hiway!

Took the River Road hiway back to Terlingua, about 40 miles of the best pavement you will find anywhere! Follows the Rio Grand River. Twisty, up and down. Just beautiful!

The rive goes through that gourge.


The Rio Grand. Mexico on the left, USA on the right.



Well that was it except for the long drive home. 3 days of pure bliss! If you never ridden Big Bend, you got to go!!

Arkmage wrote:

Nice... was this the annual "Houston Area Trail Riders" excursion I keep hearing about?

Howdy! No, the annual BBRSP rides you have heard about are our RideDualSport B.U.T.T. rides at BBRSP.
RDS is based in Austin and is very first group to ever host a ride in the park three years ago - when the park was opened to vehicles.
We continue to have our annual ride, and hope that you will join us! It is a deliberately under-promoted ride of 20 bikes maximum.
It will always be limited to 20 bikes, because it is more intimate, less wear on the roads, and safer for all.
Third Annual B.U.T.T. at BBRSP by RideDualSport
Cheers!

I have read all of your event reports. Very well done event!

Sweet riding area.

Awesome pictures. Beautiful country.

bsheet2 wrote:

I have read all of your event reports. Very well done event!

Cool, I am glad you liked them. I hoped they helped with your ride planning!
Cheers!