Big Bend Adventure

Nov 23

My family and I are taking a quick vacation to Big Bend this Thanksgiving. Loaded my wife and parents into my wife's 4Runner and my son and daughter loaded into my Tacoma and we left early this morning from east Texas. It was grey, cold and dreary the whole way over. The trip was fairly uneventful till we got to Alpine, TX - we kept a fast pace, stopped often but briefly as we hustled our way to Terlingua.

When we left Alpine and headed south into a mountain pass. I have no idea what the name of it is (Christmas Mountains) - obviously these are small mountains compared to what many on this board deal with on a regular basis, but they were exciting enough for this flat lander... Conditions deteriorated rapidly. The vehicles begin collecting ice, then the road began to accumulate ice.

I radioed my son, told him to switch into 4Hi and I did the same. Snow and sleet was coming down pretty heavy and the temperature which had been hanging at 32-34F all day began to drop as we climbed. We slowed our pace to ~20-30mph and eased our way through. We were the only vehicles on the road. I was pleased w/ both of the Toyotas in the icy conditions. I was also pleased w/ the way the Mickey Thompson MTZ's on both vehicles held the road. I KNOW - these aren't winter tires. I KNOW winter tires would have been much better. The MTZ's were what I had and we weren't sliding around, having difficulty with traction either climbing or stopping.

Anyway, here are some pics my wife snapped w/ the cell phone camera from the back seat:









Here are some pictures my daughter took w/ her cell phone from behind us while she was riding w/ my son in the Tacoma:











After about 15 miles, the elevation dropped below 4500', the ice cleared and we were able to make good time again. When we finally arrived at our cabin rental, the caretaker was telling the couple in front of us to be careful not to go North of Terlingua - the police had closed the road to Alpine. I told her we just came from there and she laughed and said no that road had been closed due to ice hours ago. I told her we saw no police (or other vehicles) and had driven through - then we showed her our pictures and she seemed surprised...

I will post more pics in this thread if I have time over the next few days - if not I'll post when we get back..

David

 

Nov 24

So it was still really cold and overcast most of the day today. We drove into the park early and the Chisos Mountain Station/lodge was closed due to iced roads! We headed on down south to lower altitudes and (slightly) warmer temperatures. We drove Old Ore Road from Rio Grande Village all the way to the northern end - about 28 miles off road.

Old Ore Road is a great little off road adventure. My wife drove much of it in her 4Runner. It is tough enough to actually use a little bit of the capabilities of your truck, but mild enough that a newbie in a stock vehicle can make it w/o problems (not sure about P rated tires in all those rocks though).

Took almost 200 photos and shot some video. Video will have to wait, uploads are slow here...

Here are some pictures from today:







































David

 

Nice pics. I want to go to big bend eventually.

 

Videos from Old Ore Road.

Let me just say it here - my videos suck! We've never really tried to video like this before and a hand held camera is NOT the way to go! I'll be getting a go pro eventually.

A concern while filming was that the detail was not coming through in the video - so we needed to zoom in, turn the camera to show some of the detail. Main result was jerky videos that are difficult to watch. Lesson learned, less is more.

So with that said here are the Old Ore Road videos....

http://youtu.be/r1X9eyzRwK0

http://youtu.be/rEvyl2vngRM

http://youtu.be/2rzrD60jdx4

http://youtu.be/g3tC4UKeg5I

http://youtu.be/XAsBHIZnFbc

http://youtu.be/raV4od1s9I8

http://youtu.be/-cuzNSq65-0

http://youtu.be/46Q5TkTHY7c

David

 

View from the House we rented in Terlingua:







David

 

East River Road











David

 

Mariscal Mine















David

 

Black Gap Road



















David

 

Pine Canyon











David

 

Sub'd

 

Thanks - my videos suck, but I'm working on making them better. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how bad they were till I had the chance to look through everything after running Black Gap, so those videos are just as bad!

Oh well, there's always next trip!

This was an exploratory trip, I didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. I will say its very difficult to grasp the enormity of the park - it just goes and goes and goes! Next trip I'll know better what to do and maybe make an exploratory run over to Big Bend State Park.

David

 

http://youtu.be/i_dNvXiDQZk

http://youtu.be/KLQYYKnFeC4

http://youtu.be/yBMJSKfJiuM

http://youtu.be/p4qJU2iMRoc

http://youtu.be/_bjO4iBEUWs

http://youtu.be/JfNji9C7sVY

http://youtu.be/OkNwT-IRLFM

http://youtu.be/hldhrUhZ4lI

http://youtu.be/IVqg6dbF8So

http://youtu.be/fiLJ0v4K8TA

http://youtu.be/yXBl6c4SldI

http://youtu.be/yt08xbOWCIc

http://youtu.be/gDtTms_AmxM

That's all of it...

David

 

Nice!

 

Great thread!

My GF loves Big Bend (I've never been) and we've talked about heading out there next year once I get my truck. Seeing the pictures and videos makes me want to go even more.

 

How hard was it to climb? It didn't seem like it would be too bad if it was dry.

Despite the early cold, we still had a great trip.

David

 

Definitely looked like a place where you could turn a good set of MT's into slicks when it starts raining.

David

 

Nice man, thanks for sharing!

 

I'm heading out to Big Bend next week with some friends to camp for a week. Thanks for the photos & video.

 

Deffinitely on the list! David, your tacoma looks great, what lift and tires are you running? Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks! Tacoma has Eibach coils w/ Bilsteins at .85" for 2.5" lift in the front, Bilsteins and Ride Rite air bags in the back at 25psi for about 1.5" lift. Tires are Mickey Thompson MTZ LT265/75/R16E on stock rims, no spacers.

I'm heading back bright and early tomorrow. Just me and a buddy - taking the wife's 4Runner (Icon suspension delivers the goods when you're trying to cover ground faster...). We're going to camp 1 night in the National Park, then head on over to the state park and spend a couple nights there at Chorro Vista. I'll post another report when we get back.

David