B is for Big Bend

Tim Iverson
Naturalist

(3/2020) Every national park has a story to tell. Each is unique in their own right and emblematic of what sets them apart. Tucked away deep in the heart of southwest Texas lay Big Bend National Park. Big Bend is comprised of three distinct habitats, each rich with cultural history dating back well over 10,000 years, and surprisingly, each is flush with life considering it has mostly an arid desert climate. The diversity of plants, animals, geology, and history make it one of the most unique parks in the system. However, receiving only a little over 400,000 visitors a year, it is one of the least visited parks creating additional peace and refuge for the resource and visitors alike.

Big Bend National Park rounds out the top 15 largest parks, measuring in at 801,163 acres. It seems as vast as it is remote. It quite literally sits at the end of the road. Bordering Mexico, Big Bend National Park maintains over 100 miles of the US-Mexican border and is one of only two National Parks with an international border crossing, the other being Glacier National Park in Montana. With a passport, visitors may legally cross into Mexico, spending a day in the quiet town of Boquillas. Despite the reputation of other border areas, Big Bend is incredibly safe. Miles of dry arid climate, rugged mountain terrain, vast wilderness, and lethal summer temperatures are a barrier unto themselves. This uncompromising territory and its distance to anywhere means the only danger visitors face is entirely environmental.

The park itself is a world of contrasts set side by side. Much of the park is comprised of scrubby Chihuahan desert habitat. Carving through this lies the lower riparian wetland zone of the Rio Grande River. Suddenly from these river and desert lowlands rises the towering Chisos Mountain range. Up in these towering heights, the mountains hold onto lush green forests trapped within this high mountain climate zone from glacial advances and retreats during the last major ice age.

Within the United States there are four major and distinct types of desert - the Sonoran, Mojave, Great Basin, and Chihuahuan. The Chihuahuan Desert is mostly located within Mexico, but still covers significant land masses in the Trans-pecos Texas area and beyond. This desert looks significantly different than the other three found in the United States. Here the habitat is filled with scrubby vegetation and cactus. The mesquite trees and creosote bushes are scattered across the rocky desert floor. You’ll find road runners darting and weaving through the plants, which all come with courtesy warnings bearing thorns, spines, and barbs brusquely asking not to be eaten or bothered. Javelinas, or collared peccaries, roam the desert floors in herds from just a few to hundreds. Javelinas resembling wild boars, have a few distinct differences from pigs, the most noticeable being the tusks. However, most of the mammals and wildlife in the area prefer to remain hidden.

A journey closer to the water can indicate wildlife that remain generally unseen. Tracks left in the muddy banks leave clues to the vast array of animals that come to this life sustaining resource. The Rio Grande River separates the United States and Mexico, but brings together so much more. The wetland zones along the river give way to massive limestone cliffs. Suddenly the Santa Elena canyon uplifts from the desert floor 1,500 feet into the air indicating the slow persistent power that water has had on the land. Millions of years ago this area was covered by a vast inland sea separating North America in two land masses. As the waters receded rivers began eroding the continent. Today this work still continues, but fossils from the past can be found exposed all along this area. Aquatic plants, birds, fish, reptiles, and mammals all come together to share this precious resource. At times, tall river canes line the shoreline giving the appearance of a tropical wetland instead of an arid desert.

All across this desert landscape you can find individual peaks dotting the landscape. In the very heart of the park lies the Chisos mountain range. This range is actually a giant circle, or an extinct volcanic caldera to be more precise. Big Bend National Park is the only park to protect an entire mountain range. The tallest point in the park is found here, Emory Peak (7,825ft) towering nearly 6,000 feet above the river lowlands below. These mountains were formed during a large volcanic event causing the land to uplift and blow, leaving behind a giant bowl. During the last ice age glaciers scoured their way across the continent. Ice age plants and trees were forced up into this bowl like caldera. As the glaciers retreated, the climate below was too warm, too dry, and was no longer suitable for them. Stepping into these mountains is like stepping back in time to the last ice age as these are the plants forced here and left behind once everything had changed.

Big Bend is a paradise for a geologist due to the variety of geological formations found here. It’s a wonderland for a biologist as there are over 1,200 species of plants, 11 species of amphibians, 56 species of reptiles, 40 species of fish, more than 400 species of birds, and over 3,600 species of insects. However, where Big Bend really shines is at night.

Because it’s so remote Big Bend is the darkest place inside the continental United States and recognized as an international dark sky park. As a result half the park is after dark, one of it’s biggest selling points. On a moonless night the sky dances with the twinkling of innumerable stars above. The Milky Way spans the sky humbly reminding the observer that far away worlds as incredible as the one we find ourselves are reflecting back. This magical night sky is streaked with shooting stars nightly.

They say everything is bigger in Texas, and this park is no exception. Big Bend National Park is bigger than the state of Rhode Island. Packed in this amazing place is everything national parks are made of with only about 1% of the total visitation of all its national park brethren. A land of extremes and contrasts, Big Bend National Park’s website succinctly self describes the park, "There is a place in Far West Texas where night skies are dark as coal and rivers carve temple-like canyons in ancient limestone. Here, at the end of the road, hundreds of bird species take refuge in a solitary mountain range surrounded by weather-beaten desert. Tenacious cactus bloom in sublime southwestern sun, and diversity of species is the best in the country. This magical place is Big Bend."