The Big Bend

People (Northerners) think Texas is just a dull, treeless, rolling plain that goes on forever – actually that would be the Panhandle. They don’t realize we have the mountains of West Texas, (the highest peak is almost 9,000 feet), the ruggedness of Big Bend National Park, deserts – even painted deserts and canyons, like Palo Duro, that are almost beyond belief.

Big Bend Country is an awesome area in which to ride your bike. Here you see a part of Texas that most people don’t even realize exists. Places like “The Basin” where nature has carved a window just because the view is so awesome. This is Big Bend Country deep in Southwest Texas. The area is a hot, dry, inhospitable but beautiful place. Every turn, every hill brings a new panorama of color, blue skies and strange geological formations.

Along with all of this Big Bend National Park is inhabited by snakes, scorpions, and buzzards. The land is punctuated with the thorns of cactus, underscored by heat. Drought, flash floods and spectacular lightening form the exclamation points. Whatever your favorite terrain is you are probably going to find a little of it here. So much to see and to photograph that it is necessary to stop frequently just to gawk. In the shade of one of the Teepees it is hard to realize that you are only about 600 miles – and two days riding – from Houston. This really is a world away.