View from the 'Big Hill' in the Big Bend Ranch State Park,

450 feet above the Rio Grande.

 

To get to know the 'lay of the land' and more specifically, the Big Band Ranch State Park (not to be confused with the Big Bend National Park) we went to the Barton Warnock Visitor Center which serves as the eastern visitor center for Big Bend Ranch State Park.
It's here in Lajitas, only 2 minutes down the main road from the RV Park.



Permits for backpacking and camping at Big Bend Ranch State Park can be obtained  here and visitors can also purchase river-use permits, licenses, and loads information about the Big Bend region.

The new, renovated Interpretive Center, "Una Tierra - One Land," presents an archeological, historical, and natural history profile of the Big Bend region.
We really liked the displays and also the short and to the point texts which makes you actually wanna read them for a change!

 

              

The Interpretive Center also offers a self-guiding tour through the two-acre desert garden.

 

The next day it was time to see the Park for ourselves so we left early in the morning to enjoy the cooler temperatures.

Within a mile from leaving the campground we were already in the Park, you can't beat that for a location, can you?!

 

FM 170, also known as El Camino del Rio, is listed as one of the top 10 scenic roads in America by National Geographic. (and with the 15% grade going up Big Hill, it is also the steepest highway in Texas!).

A spectacular 50 miles through lush, twisting river valleys, carved red and purple rock rising 1000 feet from the churning river. The road is excellent; it twists and drops to the canyon floors along the  river.
Since we live so close by and can come back anytime in the future we'd selected only a few of the sites to see for today.

One particular part of Big Bend Ranch State Park might look familiar, even if you've never been here before.

Hollywood has come to the northern bank of the Rio Grande several times, using the colorful landscape as the perfect backdrop for a tiny, Wild West town.

 

 

The Contrabando Movie Set is what remains, from the production of movies like Streets of Laredo.  
All of the buildings were built in 1985, for the filming of the comedy Uphill All The Way.  But that was just the first of nine movies made here.

 

 

Just a facade, this church, as are all the other buildings.

Next stop the 'Grassy Banks' where you have access to the Rio Grande:

And where the banks are grassy indeed (this is the Mexican side):

We'd hoped to run into some Javelinas, small pig-like animals (but they aren't) but weren't so lucky.
Their little hoof prints were all over the place though, together with prints of raccoons.

Onwards we went, for about another 5 miles, until we reached that bugger of a hill again, the famous 'Big Hill', as it is known around here.
There it is, you see the road going up in the distance (those tepees are covering the benches of a rest area. Such a neat idea):

 

 

 

 

And here we are on top again. Much less scary without an RV behind you!

 

 

                   

          Still, I'm leaning heavily into this hill! Boy is it steep up there!

 

Just before you go down there's this sign:

 

 

And this is the other side:

 

 

 

We actually went to a few other places that day but I think I'll save that for another post, this one's long enough as it is already.

 

                             It sure is a beautiful park so far!