Persimmon Gap Visitor Center - Big Bend National Park

The last stop on our September 2021 trip to Big Bend National Park was at the Persimmon Gap Visitor Center. Since the visitor center is only open seasonally for the six months of November through April, it was closed during our visit. However, the stop gave us a chance to check out the scenery we missed on the way in and to stretch our legs after the 35-mile ride from the Chisos Mountain Lodge and prepare ourselves for the nearly 100 miles to Fort Stockton.

The visitor center building was built as Coopers Store in the early 1940s before the park was created. It was built with about 10,000 adobe bricks formed by craftsmen from Ojinaga, Mexico, west of the park.

Persimmon Gap has been used for nearly 10,000 years as it is the easiest way through the Santiago Mountains. In more recent history, the gap was part of the Comanche Trail and was used as a seasonal migration route to winter settlements on the Rio Grande.

This unassuming building was once a store

A simple pergola provides a bit of shade on the north end of the building

Information sign

Another information sign

Entrance

Information desk and bookstore

The southern end of the building

Prickly Pear Cactus

Purplish Prickly Pear Cactus

The Rosillos Mountains (6 peaks over 5,000 feet) are outside the park

A hill across the highway from the visitor center

Persimmon (3749')

An unnamed hill rises nearly 400 feet above Persimmon Gap

The Rosillos Mountains with the Chisos Mountains in the background

An entry fee of $30 per vehicle, $25 per motorcycle, or $15 per person is valid for seven consecutive days at Big Bend National Park. Other fee payment options include the America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands passes including the Annual Pass ($80), Senior Pass ($80 for a lifetime), Access Pass (free with a documented disability), and Military Annual Pass (free for active-duty personnel). Also available is a Big Bend National Park Annual Park Pass for $55.

The Big Bend National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm.

Drive from Rio Grande Village to Panther Junction - Big Bend National Park

After exploring the Rio Grande Village area, we drove back our lodging at Chisos Mountains Lodge, passing Panther Junction along the way. The road climbs nearly 2,000 feet in the twenty miles from Rio Grande Village to Panther Junction. There did not seem to be any unique rock formations on this side of the park, just grand vistas of wide open spaces. We noticed clouds gathering over the Chisos Mountains and just got back to the lodge before the thunderstorm hit the area with high winds and a torrential downpour. Sunset photos were not a possibility on this evening. We visited Big Bend National Park in September 2021.

Research Station from Boquillas Canyon Road

The only tunnel in Big Bend is near Dead Mans Curve

A closer look

Storm brewing over the Chisos Mountains

Sierra San Vicente, Coahuila, Mexico

Sierra del Carmen

Fault lines in the Sierra del Carmen

A closer look at the fault lines

An unnamed hill above Tornillo Creek

Clouds continue to gather over the Chisos Mountains

Sunbeams

An entry fee of $30 per vehicle, $25 per motorcycle, or $15 per person is valid for seven consecutive days at Big Bend National Park. Other fee payment options include the America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands passes including the Annual Pass ($80), Senior Pass ($80 for a lifetime), Access Pass (free with a documented disability), and Military Annual Pass (free for active-duty personnel). Also available is a Big Bend National Park Annual Park Pass for $55.

The Big Bend National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm.

Boquillas Burros, Rocks, and Desert Flora - Big Bend National Park

While on the Boquillas Canyon Road near Rio Grande Village, we saw three wild burros grazing beside the road. After stopping to get a couple of pictures, we drove to the deserted trailhead. On our return towards the main road, I stopped to get some pictures of the Sierra del Carmen and the desert plants knowing there were no vehicles behind us.

Boquillas Canyon in Sierra del Carmen

Creosote bush, prickly pear, ocotillo, and more

An entry fee of $30 per vehicle, $25 per motorcycle, or $15 per person is valid for seven consecutive days at Big Bend National Park. Other fee payment options include the America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands passes including the Annual Pass ($80), Senior Pass ($80 for a lifetime), Access Pass (free with a documented disability), and Military Annual Pass (free for active-duty personnel). Also available is a Big Bend National Park Annual Park Pass for $55.

The Big Bend National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm.

Boquillas Canyon Overlook - Big Bend National Park

Continuing our visit to the Rio Grande Village area of Big Bend National Park, we took a side road to the Boquillas Canyon Overlook in September 2021. While there, we noticed a couple of Hispanic entrepreneurs had laid out their wares on the boulders the park service had conveniently placed around the overlook. From the overlook, we could look down on the Rio Grande beside us as well as at the beginning of the Boquillas Canyon where the river has carved a 1,300 foot-deep canyon in the Sierra del Carmen.

View downstream from the overlook

Mexico

The view upstream

Entrance to the Boquillas Canyon

A closer look

The Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico

The Sierra del Carmen in Texas

The town of Boquillas del Carmen beyond the merchandise for sale

An entry fee of $30 per vehicle, $25 per motorcycle, or $15 per person is valid for seven consecutive days at Big Bend National Park. Other fee payment options include the America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands passes including the Annual Pass ($80), Senior Pass ($80 for a lifetime), Access Pass (free with a documented disability), and Military Annual Pass (free for active-duty personnel). Also available is a Big Bend National Park Annual Park Pass for $55.

The Big Bend National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm.

Rio Grande Village - Big Bend National Park

Rio Grande Village is located in the southeastern part of Big Bend National Park in Texas. The village has a visitor center, river access, a camp store with over 50 paved parking spots, a campground with 93 sites, and an RV campground with 25 full hook-ups operated by the park concessionaire, Forever Resorts. 

A nature trail starts near campsite 14 in the large campground with parking available at the trailhead for a couple of vehicles. We decided it was too hot to hike during our September 2021 visit to the village.

The camp store sells all the normal camping supplies and park souvenirs. In addition, it has gas and diesel pumps, a laundromat, restrooms, and coin-operated showers.

The RV campground is a large parking lot requiring campers to back into their assigned space. Water, electricity, Wi-Fi, and a dump station are provided, but shade is not. 

Road sign at the end of the highway

Village Store

Exterior information sign at the store

River access

Rio Grande downstream

Rio Grande upstream

Thunderstorms forming over the Sierra del Carmen

A less obstructed view of the Sierra del Carmen

Boquillas Crossing was closed due to the Covid pandemic

An entry fee of $30 per vehicle, $25 per motorcycle, or $15 per person is valid for seven consecutive days at Big Bend National Park. Other fee payment options include the America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands passes including the Annual Pass ($80), Senior Pass ($80 for a lifetime), Access Pass (free with a documented disability), and Military Annual Pass (free for active-duty personnel). Also available is a Big Bend National Park Annual Park Pass for $55.

The Big Bend National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm.