Big Bend National Park Camping, Hiking or Backpacking - February 19-23 (Wednesday - Sunday)

The Big Bend of Texas has been shaped by eruptions, folds, faults, wind, water, and human management into a fabric of scrubby desert, forested mountains, canyons, pinnacles, and pour-offs. The region and the national park take their names from the giant curve the Rio Grande makes as it flows south, east, and north around the land.  Climate and vegetation in the park vary dramatically with elevations from 7,825 feet at Emory Peak to 1,680 feet on the Rio Grande. Remnant ponderosa pines, Douglas firs, aspens, maples, and oaks can be found at elevations above 6,000 feet. As elevations decrease, forests yield to junipers, then to desert plant communities of agave, yucca, sotol, ocotillo, mesquite, creosote and cactus. The park’s mammal community includes mountain lions, foxes, bobcats, bears, javelinas, mule deer, and white tail deer.
For more information about the park, visit http://www.nps.gov/bibe.

The 2025 Outing:

The Dallas Group of Sierra Club has a long history of outings to hike, camp, and backpack in the Big Bend. This year’s outing offers a choice of three trip itineraries. Two include backpacking. One offers day hikes that return to the same camp each night. For all trips, hikers should arrive after 1:00 p.m. and before dark on Wednesday, February 19 at the Rio Grande Village Group Campground. Trip itineraries is given below. For questions email Jim Robarge at robargeDSC@gmail.com.

Itinerary:

Trip 1: The High Chisos
This itinerary is suitable for experienced and beginner backpackers in good physical condition.

• Thursday, Feb. 20: Drive to the Chisos Basin Visitor Center then hike to Colima 1 & 2 camp sites.  In the afternoon we will hike to Boot Creek to get water.
• Friday, Feb. 21: Day hike a loop of 8 miles to the South Rim of the Chisos Mountains for a panorama of the Chihuahuan desert far below and the mountains in Mexico, returning to camp via the Boot Canyon Trail and the Southwest Rim Trail.
• Saturday, Feb. 22: Break camp in the morning to backpack 5 miles via the Pinnacles Trail to the Chisos Basin Visitor Center. Drop packs midway at Toll Mountain Pass for an optional day hike to Emory Peak (4 miles round-trip). Dinner at the Chisos Mountains Lodge is an option.  Begin Travel home or return to the Rio Grande Village Campground.
• Sunday, Feb. 23: Travel home.

Leader: Christian Costello,  j.christian.costello@gmail.com, 972-591-1547

Trip 2: Day Hiking and Exploring Big Bend
This itinerary is ideal for people in good condition who would like to day hike in different areas of Big Bend National Park. This trip will give you the opportunity to explore more of Big Bend National Park than any of the other trips but will require a bit of driving. This is a perfect trip for anyone who has never been to Big Bend before. 

• Thursday, Feb. 20: We will explore the area around Rio Grande Village with short hikes on the Rio Grande Nature Trail (less than a mile), and Boquillas Canyon, one of the three canyons the Rio Grande River has cut in the park (less than 2 miles). We’ll finish the day with a hike to the historic Langford Hot Springs (6 miles).
• Friday, Feb. 21: Lots of driving today! We’ll drive to the western part of the park where we will hike to the top of Burro Mesa Pour-off, a fascinating geological feature and really fun hike (about 3.5 miles). We will then visit Homer Wilson Blue Creek Ranch to explore a bit of the pre-park ranching history and cache some water for the Trip 3 hikers (.5 miles).  We will then continue to the historic town of Castolon for lunch and maybe an ice cream treat. Our last stop will be a visit to the spectacular Santa Elena Canyon (less than 2 miles). After that it’s back to camp.
• Saturday, Feb. 22: Another day of driving, but a lot less than Friday. We’ll drive to the Basin in the Chisos Mountains where we will hike the Lost Mine Trail (5 to 7 miles, depending on where we can park). We will then hike out to the Window (about 5 miles). After that it’s back to camp (with maybe dinner at the Chisos Lodge first).
• Sunday, Feb. 23: Travel home.

Leader: Arthur Kuehne, arthur@akuehne.com, 214-608-3210

Trip 3: Outer Loop Hike
This strenuous but rewarding hike offers a variety of biomes that define Big Bend - from steep, rocky climbs through the forested Chisos Mountains to cactus-dodging treks across gently rolling, unshaded desert. A high level of fitness and the ability to bear the weight of four or more liters of water at a time are musts.

• Thursday, Feb. 20: Drive to the Basin trailhead and hike into the Chisos Mountains via the Pinnacles Trail to Boot Spring. After loading up on water, hike the Juniper Canyon Trail to our dry campsite beyond Upper Juniper Springs. 
• Friday, Feb. 21: Continue down the Juniper Canyon Trail and along the Dodson Trail to camp at Fresno Creek. 
• Saturday, Feb. 22: Hike the Dodson Trail. We will stop at the Homer Wilson Ranch, pick up cached water and continue up the Blue Creek Trail to camp in a dry wash. 
• Sunday, Feb. 23: Continue hiking northeast and make the steep climb back into the high country, then trek down the Laguna Trail to return to the Chisos Basin Visitor Center. Begin travel home.

In all, we will have hiked 30.8 miles and gained a cumulative 6,500 feet of elevation.

Leader: Eduardo Gonzalez, ciberguenzza@gmail.com, 214-202-7639

Trip leaders reserve the right to modify these itineraries due to weather, trail conditions, changes to park rules, group strength, and other factors. 

To Register:

After reading all of the information on this web page. If you have questions, contact the trip organizer or any of the trip leaders. Then, if you want to go on this trip, follow these steps:

1. Fill Out Forms: Open this PDF. It has three forms, a general information form, a trip participation form and a medical form. You can print these forms and fill them out by hand, or you can fill them out on your computer and then print and sign them, or you can download the form, fill them out on your computer and save them. Photos of the forms are not acceptable.
2. Pay for the trip: The fee for this trip is $100.00 per person. Click here for payment options. The trip fee covers expenses for the group campsite, hiking permits, and expenses of the Dallas Sierra Club's outings program. Excess funds benefit the Dallas Sierra Club's conservation efforts.
3. Send your forms and payment:  Send your forms and payment (if paying by check or money order) to Jim Robarge, 2615 Woodside Drive, Highland Village, TX 75077 OR email your forms (the pdf you filled out) to robargeDSC@gmail.com (and mail only check).

Your registration will be confirmed by email or phone.

Additional Costs:

There’s an additional entry pass fee of $30 per vehicle on entry into Big Bend National Park, but the fee is waived if anyone in the car presents a National Parks pass. The entry pass is good for 7 days.

Cancellations:

The $100 trip fee is non-refundable.

If the Sierra Club cancels the outing for any reason, your $100.00 trip fee will be refunded in full, but Sierra Club is not responsible for and will not refund any payments you may have made for airfare, lodging, or other expenses.  You might want to consider trip insurance if you anticipate significant expenses.

Gear:

Each person is responsible for bringing personal gear and food. Sharing a tent or other gear with a friend is fine. A basic gear list follows. We encourage calling leaders with gear questions. If your loaded pack exceeds 25 to 30 pounds before you add water (2.2 pounds per liter), lighten your load!

• Tent, sleeping bag, sleep pad: A backpacker needs a lightweight tent, a sleeping bag, and an air mattress or sleep pad. The function of the air mattress is to insulate you from cold ground.
• Backpack: For Trips 1 or 3, you’ll need a backpack for all your gear, food and water. For day hikes, you might offload your pack or most of its gear into your tent or the bear boxes by most camps. Consider adding a lightweight rucksack for water and essentials on day hikes.
• Food: The food you pack, and carry depends on your trip’s daily itinerary and your taste. Most hikers prepare a hot meal in the early evening. Dehydrated foods requiring only boiling water and a short wait for rehydration are available at outing stores, but good and less expensive meal alternatives are available from grocery stores. Hikers generally bring a no-cook meal for lunch.  Some will eat a quick cooked breakfast; others a no-cook breakfast. Bring snacks for the trail.  Ground fires and wood fires are prohibited in BBNP. Charcoal fires are allowed in the grills provided at group campsites, but we recommend cooking with tiny, canned fuel stoves because they don’t emit smoke or embers.
• Water: Water from the visitor centers and group campgrounds needs no treatment. Except from those sources, water for drinking must be treated by tablets, filtration, or boiling. Ask your trip leader’s recommendation regarding how much water capacity to bring and how much to carry each day.
• Clothing: Layers are key to comfort, given the range of possible weather conditions. Five layers for your torso are recommended (including a rain/wind shell), two layers for your legs. (One layer could be rain pants, which double as thermal protection.) Denim become chilly and heavy when wet and should be avoided. Wear tested boots or trail runners and two layers of socks (thin sock on the inside to preclude blisters). Bring gloves and a cap to keep your head warm at night. Don’t forget a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen for UV protection.
• Other stuff: Don’t forget a headlamp or flashlight and personal health and first aid items. Bring or share a lightweight garden trowel and tissue for personal waste disposal plus a zip-lock bag for used tissues. That’s right—pack out the paper!

Bears:

Common in the 1900s, black bears disappeared from the Big Bend until they re-colonized in the late 1980s. They don’t completely hibernate in the Big Bend but spend most of the winter in dens.  Mothers give birth to cubs in February. Sites where Trips 1 and 3 will camp have metal bear-proof boxes for food storage. Take precautions to avoid losing your food to bears, deer or smaller critters:
• Store food and items that smell in the bear boxes. Otherwise, always keep those items on your person, in your control.
• Don’t eat in your tent or store food or items with food spills in your tent.
• Prepare meals away from your sleeping area.
• Disperse cooking water over a wide area, away from camp.
• Store trash in your food bag (within a separate plastic bag).
• Pack out all leftover food and trash.

Weather:

Mid to late February weather in Big Bend is usually good with highs in the 70s and lows around 40. February is usually dry with clear skies. Extremes can range from the 90s to the 20s with occasional sleet or snow. There can also be quite a bit of variation in the park due to elevation differences.

Maps:

Maps of Big Bend National Park are available at www.nps.gov/bibe/planyourvisit/maps.htm, including an excellent printable map of trails and camps in the Chisos Mountains and a map of the Chisos Basin and Rio Grande Village. A good paper map of the whole park with topography is National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map 225, available online and at stores for $14.95.

Leave No Trace:

Leave-no-trace wilderness ethics are expected of all participants. All trash must be packed out; human waste buried and used toilet paper packed out. (Bring a zip-lock bag.) Pets, firearms and smoking are not allowed.

Medical:

Our leaders have trained for wilderness first aid, but they are not medical professionals.  Participants are encouraged to bring first aid supplies for personal use and to inform leaders about a medical condition such as diabetes, heart problems or allergic reactions that could require emergency treatment. Tell the leader where you store vital medications you could need. Medical information you provide may be shared with medical professionals who treat you in the event of injury or sickness.

Group = Safety:

Participants who leave the led group without leader consent will be asked to sign out of the trip and will no longer be part of the outing. If you leave the outing, don’t hike alone and always hike on a trail. Most deaths in wild areas occur when a solo hiker becomes incapacitated before being found. When leaving camp, especially at night, be careful to not get disoriented.

Minors:

Minors may participate with leader consent if always accompanied by their parent or legal guardian.

California Seller of Travel Law: Because the Sierra Club is a California nonprofit corporation and California has a "Seller of Travel" law; we’re required to post this notice:
CST 2087766-40. Registration as a seller of travel does not constitute approval by the State of California.
Okay, we’ve complied.