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Road tripping to LaJitas from SE Houston. Want to go off the beaten path. Thinking of checking out the hot springs maybe some geocaching. Horseback riding. Definitely Roy Bean! Pecos River, Anybody got some travel gems up their sleeves?
ashamed to say that I've just driven through on I10 w stops in San Antonio and ElPaso. My family fought and died for Tx. I should see it. Even if it takes a lifetime! And it might!!
So let's hear it!
Hi, and Welcome to the Great American Roadtrip Forum.
What I would do, if I were you, is get hold of a good map of TX. The State of TX publishes a really good one with tons of detail. Then just meander to any little place and speak with the locals. Ask them - lots of them - where their favourite local spot is; where would they go for a weekend?
The thing with the gems you'd like to see is, once they are marked on maps, printed in guidebooks or appear on the internet, imcluding this forum, they will no longer be the out of the way gems for which you are looking. They are likely to become attractions which a lot of people may want to see, and cease to be those local gems. Scenic routes are marked on all good maps, including the TX State issued map.
Keep the map, and mark which roads you drove and which towns / gems you visited. A good way of keeping a record of how much of the State you have seen.
Since you are going to a town so close to Big Bend National Park and the State Park, I hope you are planning to visit those!
Donna
In early November 2017, I'm hoping to RoadTrip from North Carolina to Terlingua, Lajitas, Presidio, and pop back out to "civilization" at Marfa, TX for the long trip back home.
What I've learned about the area tells me Big Bend NP is huge and has many, many miles of off-highway trails, most if not all strongly recommending high-clearance 4WD drive vehicles. The hot springs within BBNP are right on the Rio Grande, accessible by conventional automobile, and are heavily used. There is an official border crossing station along the river near the hot springs where one can cross to the very isolated Mexican village of Boquillas. For $5, a gentleman from the Mexican side will row you across the river, and back, in a jonboat. One must have a passport or a passport card to re-enter the US. There is a hot spring on the Mexican side outside of Boquillas, too.
West of BBNP is Big Bend Ranch State Park, almost as large as BBNP but far less developed. The park HQ is 27 miles down a gravel road from FM 170 near Presidio. Many, many miles of graded gravel roads and two-track trails for high-clearance 4WD are in BBRSP.
Northwest of Presidio is Candelaria and north of there is Chinati Hot Springs. It's a rustic but very nice looking collection of cabins, a communal cooking area (no restaurant), and a good-sized outdoor soaking pool which appears to be of around 20-25' in diameter and is beneath the shade of a large cottonwood tree. Some of the cabins have privacy-screened soaking tubs adjacent to the cabin. A larger cool water pool is atop a small knoll overlooking the group of cabins and the hot soaking pool.
Those with high-clearance vehicles may take the "back way" up Pinto Canyon Road from Chinati HS to Marfa, or of course may use this route inbound towards the Spring, too. It's some 50 miles to Marfa from Chinati HS, about half of it paved route FM 2810 (closest to Marfa) and the portion from the edge of the canyon all the way to the Spring being graded gravel roads.
West Texas' Big Bend Country is a geologist's dream, even an amateur naturalist's dream. Two fine publications to consider prior to your visit would include "Roadside Geology of Texas". Get the newer edition released in the late 1980s/early 1990s instead of the 1970s edition. Another fine read is Ross Maxwell's Texas Bureau of Economic Geology publication "Geology of Big Bend National Park". Each publication is written for the person with casual interest in the amazing landforms they see from road and trail.
My wife and I are pondering some places to visit along the way out or back. Some of the short list possibilities include the LBJ Ranch, Lukenbach, the Lost Horse Saloon in Marfa, Prada Marfa, the Odessa meteor crater, and the Sierra Madera meteor crater near Marathon, the latter two being that rockhead stuff again.
Enjoy the planning and the RoadTrip.
Foy