Often touted as the most scenic drive in Texas, National Geographic claims Farm to Market Road 170, Camino del Rio (the River Road), running parallel to the Rio Grande, which also skirts the Mexican border, to be one of 300 must-see scenic routes in the United States. It’s the only passage across the Big Bend Ranch State Park of Texas that most tourists ever see.
The more adventurous souls can register at one of two state park headquarters in the area, to backpack into the 300,000-acre wilderness where they can ride horses, hike or bike along 238 miles of trails. (Bring your own equipment and horses.) Access to the river provides opportunities for rafting, kayaking, canoeing and free bank fishing.
The paved highway through the state park doesn’t thrive on the multiple hairpin curves like a jaunt through the North Georgia mountains offers; rather, it resembles an almost 50-mile long roller coaster ride of steep grades and lots of ups and downs with speed limit often set at 20-miles-per-hour. One especially steep climb is labeled “The Hill.” The slower pace of this road allows the tourists to see so much of the land’s geology and botany up close.
While the entire ride has tourists looking all around, I most remember the cacti clinging to the sides of mountains. Remember how a blade of grass can find its way through a sidewalk crack. Likewise, prickly pear cacti, in shades varying from yellow to green to pink to purple, find niches in the rocky surface to grow. The Texas Highway Department maintains this road and provides various pull offs for the traveler to stop and look down on the Rio Grande River, 500-feet below. One picnic area where tables are shaded by teepee like structures is dedicated to Lady Bird Johnson for her efforts to protect and promote the nation’s wildflowers. As we entered this area, we were greeted by a bed of cacti and other native plants.
Terlingua
FM Road 170 begins in the quaint town of Terlinga-Study Butte. In the late 1800s, the Chinos Mining Company extracted quicksilver (Mercury) from the ground here. In the early 1900s, an influenza epidemic decimated the population. The town cemetery grew in size, but the yellow stone buildings were left to deteriorate. Time and vandalism took their toll. However, today people are once again claiming the ruins and turning some of the crumbling houses into habitable homes.
This town, however, is best known for its half-century-old annual chili competition. In 1967, H. Allen Smith of New York challenged two Texas reporters. Frank X. Tolbert, best remembered as a historian, and Wick Fowler, a war correspondent, to a chili competition. Smith claimed Texans didn’t know how to make chili. For some unknown reason, the Texans invited Smith to Terlingua for the competition. While that first competition ended in a tie, Terlingua claimed a new identity by hosting an annual chili cook-off which draws dozens of cooks and hundreds of spectators each November. Fowler turned his “secret” ingredients into a popular product, “2 Alarm Chili Mix.”
Lajitas
Between Big Bend National Park to the east, and Big Bend Ranch State Park to the west, sits the tiny town of Lajitas, whose name means “little flat rocks.” The area was originally populated by Mexican Indians; and while mercury mining 11 miles away drew some Anglos to the area, farming was the greater attraction. In 1912, the town boasted a store, a saloon, a school with 50 pupils, a church, and a customhouse. The border crossing between the two countries at this point was considered the best in the long stretch of border between the major crossings at Del Rio, TX to the East and El Paso, TX to the West.
While properties changed hands numerous times, this town regained popularity in the mid-1990s as a site for movie making. Probably, the most famous movie filmed here was a TV miniseries, “Streets of Laredo” staring James Garner. Today, that old movie set serves as a facade for the businesses now cropping up to support a world class 18-hole golf resort. We spent two nights at the golf resort’s campground while we toured this area.
Presidio
While FM Road 170 extends some miles beyond Presidio, an official border crossing into Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico, most tourists turn around in this Hispanic town. Although the rich farm area had been populated by both Indians and Spaniards for centuries and the town christened with a variety of names, Anglos began to settle the area in1848 after the Mexican War. Cattle ranches spread across the terrain, a railroad reached this outpost and the town took the name Presidio del Norte permanently. During war time, the area prospered with two military installations - Fort Russell and Marfa Army Air Field. The population peaked in the early 1900s with over 12,000 residents. Today’s population tops 6,000.
In 1916 during the time of Pancho Villa’s raids into Texas, Hallie Crawford Stillwell, 19, much to her dad’s chagrin, accepted a teaching position in Presidio. He told her she was off on a “wild goose chase.” She replied, I’ll gather my geese. That phrase became the title of her first memoir. This teacher, writer, rancher and justice of the peace was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1988. Before her death, she began a sequel, My Goose is Cooked: Continuation of a West Texas Ranch Woman. Her granddaughter Betty Heath completed the book.
At the recommendation of a state park ranger, we ate lunch at El Patio in Presidio. Seated at the next table were three young Texas State Patrol troopers. Bob ordered a traditional Mexican dinner. After studying the menu, I chose vegetable soup and a slice of Tres Leches cake. I’ve long wanted to make one of these Mexican cakes, but never have. Especially since the cake was the first item brought to our table, Bob and I really enjoyed the treat.
After I ordered, I told Bob I probably would get a cup of soup straight from a can. Was I ever wrong. I was served a cup of Caldo de Res soup with large chunks of vegetables - cabbage, potato, carrot, zucchini, accompanied by a container of soft tortillas. It was delicious, one of the best meals I enjoyed on the entire trip. I was sorry that I hadn’t ordered a bowl.
The return drive to our campground was equally spectacular. While the Texas State Parks and Wildlife Service dubs this largest park in the state as “The Other Side of Nowhere,” I’m here to say that there is plenty to see along the Camino del Rio.
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