Our time ran out on our reservation in Big Bend National Park and we had to leave. We vowed to each other that we would return because, despite being tough to get to, this park is absolutely stunning with plenty of wildlife, an extraordinary variety of plants and majestic, unique terrain. We started our trip by driving the 20 miles to Panther Junction again where we turned onto US-385, heading north across the 80 miles or so of colorful desert to Marathon.
In Marathon, we picked up fuel before turning east on US-90 for a long haul across southwest Texas. The road passes through a tremendous expanse of good scenery but little civilization. I’m glad the truck ran well and we bought fuel in Marathon because there certainly isn’t a lot of fuel options along the way and running out of fuel here will definitely mean a lengthy delay. After another 100 miles or so, we pulled off in Langtry, Texas, where Judge Roy Bean declared himself as the “Law West of the Pecos” and had a very colorful life while dispensing justice from his saloon. He had a crush on a performer of the time named Lily Langtry and named his saloon and other things after her. Unfortunately, Lily and Roy never met although she visited the remnants of his empire shortly after his death.
Langtry had some boom periods in the past but there is little here now. There is no cell phone service. There is no wifi. There is no diesel. There is little paving after turning off US-90. We heard a train go by town and, since there is very little town and no grade crossings, the engineer doesn’t blow the whistle; only a rumble to let the locals, if any, know the train is passing.There are no full hookup RV parks but we found a place with a 30 amp plug and pulled in.
They do have and we walked over to visit the nice Roy Bean museum and travel info center where we checked out their exhibits. We also checked out Roy’s saloon/courtroom, their very clean restrooms and Roy’s house. There is also a pretty botanical garden with a variety of native, very pointy plants. It is free.
Near our RV spot the Rio Grande runs through an impressive rock gorge. We took a little spin in the truck and checked out the gorge and the massive hollow spots in the banks where the river has scoured the limestone smooth. I wanted to check out the other bank of the river until I remembered it is in Mexico and, additionally, looks roadless.
There’s a few pix to see if you click here