9 Reasons Why I Loved Big Bend Ranch State Park In Texas

Having visited Big Bend National Park a couple of days before, Shae and I decided to check out the other large park near our cabin in Terlingua – Big Bend Ranch State Park.

Big Bend Ranch State Park is the largest state park in Texas and runs along the border of Mexico. Having visited both the National Park and State Park in the Big Bend area, my favorite was the State Park.

Here’s why I loved it so much.

1) Beautiful Views

Big Bend National Park was beautiful, but much of it was simply a vast expanse. Big Bend Ranch State Park felt more confined and intimate, with mountains and the Rio Grande always close by.

2) Great Picnic Spots

While exploring the park, we came across many great places to stop and have lunch. There was a covered picnic area looking out over the Rio Grande…

…and fun teepees providing what’s presumably some much-needed shade in the summer.

We visited at the beginning of December, so it was beautiful weather but not too hot. Seeing as we didn’t need any shade, we had lunch sitting on the rocks down by the river.

To be honest, there’s probably no bad place to have a picnic in the entire park.

3) Pet-Friendly

Big Bend National Park was sort of pet-friendly; dogs were allowed in the park on campsites and in your car if driving through, but they weren’t allowed on any hiking trails.

Big Bend Ranch State Park is a little more lenient as dogs are allowed on a couple of trails. That meant Truffles got to explore much more of the State Park with us than she did at the National Park.

4) Closed Canyon Trail

One of the two pet-friendly trails in Big Bend Ranch State Park is the Closed Canyon Trail.

The rocky path takes you down to the entrance of Closed Canyon.

You can’t get lost on this trail as there’s only one way into the canyon. The Closed Canyon Trail is 0.7 miles each way and is classed as an easy to moderate hike.

The vast majority of the hike is on the easier end of things, consisting of fine gravel on a level surface. Having said that, it’s worth wearing shoes with decent grip. There are a few moments where you’ll be stepping down on smooth rock which is very slippery even when it’s dry. My shoes didn’t have great grip on the bottom, so I almost slipped a few times.

The only moderate parts of the trail are when you have to do a bit of clambering over rocks, but even that’s not too bad.

The trail continues through the canyon, with walls rising to the height of a 15 story building.

It’s a beautiful 0.7 mile hike, with the trail ending when you reach a tributary of the Rio Grande. Unfortunately the photo below didn’t come out well, but it’s obvious when you reach the end.

5) Hoodoos Trail

The Hoodoos Trail is the other pet-friendly trail in Big Bend Ranch State Park. Hoodoos are mushroom-shaped rock formations that were formed through wind and water erosion.

The Hoodoos Trail is a 1.1 mile round trip, but there seemed to be various different routes you could take to explore the different formations.

There’s a slightly worn path down to the Rio Grande, so we wandered down there and is where we decided to have our lunch. Once we’d eaten, we headed back up to the trail and went to the overlook on the trail that looks out at all the hoodoos and across the river to Mexico.

6) Visiting Mexico (Sort Of)

From what we could tell, part of Big Bend Ranch State Park crosses over the Mexico border.

While exploring down by the Rio Grande, we zoomed in on the map and it showed that we were across the border. Providing it picked up our location accurately, it meant I got to visit Mexico for the first time!

The views across the river are stunning, so the idea of putting a wall there is dumb.

7) Road Signs

While driving through the park, we saw several signs that suggested Texas is trying to slut-shame their cows.

8) Beautiful Views

I know I listed this as the first reason I loved it, but it’s so true that it deserves to be mentioned again. Seriously – the entire drive through Big Bend Ranch State Park is incredible. You don’t even need to pull over to a scenic overlook to get a good view, but we did that too.

9) Scenic Drive

Before embarking on our 5 year, 50 state road trip, we’d already driven cross country from Virginia to California and back again a couple of times. We’ve therefore already seen a lot of the country in the past, but I think the drive through Big Bend Ranch State Park has been my all-time favorite. Better than the mountains in Colorado, better than the California coast, better than Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia.

It was so nice, we decided to drive back through the State Park on our way from Terlingua to El Paso a couple of days later, even though that added an hour to our journey.

Although photos can give a good idea of what it looks like, a video can do an even better job. Here’s one I took as we drove back through the park towards Terlingua at the end of our first visit.

Final Thoughts

Big Bend Ranch State Park was my favorite of all the state parks we’ve visited so far on the road trip. With mountains either side of you, the Rio Grande running through the park, rock formations, pet-friendly trails and more, I highly recommend visiting it – even more so than Big Bend National Park.