Big Bend in a Weekend
It’s hard for me to get away from work for long vacations, so I am always looking for Texas road trips to feed my gypsy soul on weekends. It’s over six hours away from San Antonio, so Big Bend National Park has always seemed too ambitious for a weekend trip. But, the park kept calling me and this past weekend, I finally answered. What did I learn? Even when you really only have one day to give, Big Bend is worth the trip.
The Road Trip. We elected to take highway 90 west, rather than I-10 so it would feel like a road trip instead of a chore, even though it added some time to the drive. Passing through Castroville, Uvalde, and Del Rio gives you the chance to get to know a part of Texas that feels frozen in time (in a good way). After Del Rio, the landscape changes and there are canyons, mountains, small towns that look like scenes from movies and a gigantic lake (Lake Amistad) to see along the way. Make sure you have plenty of gas before before you leave Comstock because there is nothing for another 88 miles after that.
The Food. Always tricky for me as a gluten free veggie, but there were some highlights:
8:30 Kitchen in Del Rio (https://830kitchen.com/). They had a fun menu of fresh comfort food. I had elote, homemade kettle chips, and we shared a wedge salad without the bacon.
Picnic with Far Flung Outdoor Center. More on the tour later, but I need to mention that the lunch they pack for you is really good and very friendly to restricted diets. The homemade, authentic salsa was a highlight. Also, on the way out, we stopped at a bakery stand that had better gluten free lemon cake than you will find at any high-end bakery in any city.
Broadway 830 Pizza (https://broadway830.com/). Gluten free pizza in Uvalde — this place is underrated. I had the “The Killer Bee” with cauliflower crust. It’s so nice to be able to eat pizza without the stomach ache. They get inclusiveness bonus points for their mocktail menu. I got a virgin strawberry margarita.
The Hotel. There are a lot of good options, depending on the experience you want to have in the area. We went with the Historic Gage Hotel because it helped distribute the driving and added another dimension to the trip. I could probably do an entire post about this hotel alone. It’s historic, it nails Texas-luxury in its design, and the staff were unflinchingly accommodating of my unusual requests with no trace of snootiness (snooty hotel staff are a pet peeve of mine). But the best thing about The Gage was the property itself, courtyards, fire pits, swimming pools, rocking chairs, porches, and games to encourage people to get outside and say hello to each other.
There is also a wonderful garden across the street, Gage Gardens, which is worth a morning visit.
One note on the Gage —the coffee shop V6 Coffee Bar has gluten free bread and the food is really good, but it closes at 3:00. The 12 Gage restaurant menus are pretty limited for dinner and not easy to navigate for GFs and Vs. I think they would probably work with you if you call ahead, but I decided to try the Mexican place next door that looked promising. It ended up being not so good for a few reasons (chicken stock in the enchiladas, etc.). Marathon is a small town, so plan ahead for food if you want to stay at the Gage.
The Tour. Since we were both new to the park and didn’t really know where to start, a jeep tour felt like a good idea, so we signed up for the “Around the Bend” tour through Far Flung Outfitters (https://bigbendfarflung.com/). This took us to Santa Elena Canyon, off road through fields of Ocotillo, Soap Tree Yucca, Purple Nopales, and up to the Mule Ears and Sotol Vistas on a fun, open-aired ride through the park. Big Bend’s website gives some advice on planning trips of various lengths, but having a guide made us feel like we learned more, connected historically and emotionally to the place, and maximized the time.
Also, we were big fans of our guide (Randy). He was knowledgeable and generous with personal stories of life in Terlingua. His love for the park was infectious, and he was accommodating of my vegetarian gluten-freeness and the group’s physical limitations. On my next trip, I am going to try to stay at Far Flung’s cabins because I will have the option to cook my own food and they look nice.
Bits and Pieces of the Big Bend. We stuffed in visits to the Fossil Discovery Center, which was satisfying, and drove up to the Chisos Basin, which had dramatic views and actual trees, which made it feel like a totally different park. We saw cottontail rabbits, vermillion flycatchers, deer, two roadrunners and more tarantulas than I care to see in a day. The park is easier to navigate than I expected and has well-marked exhibits at every turn, so adding some additional stops to the day was easier than expected.
It was a big adventure, action packed, and it would be a lie to say we’re not sore from all the driving. But Big Bend in a weekend (from San Antonio) CAN be done and I have a feeling it won’t be long before I do it again.
