Visiting Big Bend with Dogs
Visiting Big Bend with Dogs
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Big Bend National Park has been on my list since we moved to Texas so we decided to pack up the dogs and take a road trip to finally see this beauty for ourselves. For a quick overview of the whole trip itinerary, you can read about that on this post: 5 Day Big Bend National Park Road Trip Itinerary (1.5 days in the Park).
How Many Days Do You Need In Big Bend National Park?
One day is enough if you just want to do the scenic drives and get out and take some pictures at the key stops. We spent 1.5 days in the park and were able to drive and see every part of the park, but we didn’t do any hikes. If you plan to hike, you’ll definitely need at least two full days but three might be better. I wish we had added a day to our stay just to hang out at our lodging and relax a bit more.
What’s the Best Way to Get to Big Bend National Park?
If you’re flying, El Paso is closest at 4 hours away. San Antonio is about 6 hours away and would also allow you to visit San Antonio while you’re there, if you have time. Or, you can do our preferred method, road trip!
We drove from Northeast Texas and if you go straight through, it’s about 10 hours plus stops. I joked to Jess that we can drive to Nebraska (where we’re from), or we can drive to Big Bend, that’s how far away it is – and you’re still in Texas, haha!
We split up the trip and stayed in Midland at the Four Points by Sheraton. Midland is an oil town and it gets a lot of workers so when we went to book, it was pretty full. But this hotel was fairly new and it was clean and nice, but not super close to anything.
There’s a great park in town, the Westridge Park, and we walked the dogs there multiple times. It’s clean, well-lit, safe and there’s a nice, fenced area so they could explore off-leash safely. Just please clean up after your dogs, otherwise places stop letting you have them there.
If you’re going the same route, there’s a coffee shop in Weatherford, Ironworks Coffee, that’s a nice place to stop. They also have a little park near the coffee shop that we let the boys stretch their legs, Heritage Park, we go by the Amphitheater.
While in Midland, we also ate at Volcano Sushi and Asian Fusion and it was good! Jess said the sushi was just ok but the kung pao shrimp, udon, crab Rangoon and eggrolls were all really good!
From Midland, it’s only about 4 more hours to Terlingua, which is the gateway to Big Bend. But… I really wanted to see Prada Marfa, which was a 45-minute detour each way. Jess was a trooper and took me there. Even he said it was pretty cool to see.
Prada Marfa is an art installation in the middle of nowhere. The bags have no bottoms and the shoes are all the same foot so there’s no incentive for thieves to break in. There’s a fence on the side and behind it that people have covered in locks – it’s really neat.
Also, driving in this part of Texas, there are other random roadside attractions, like these huge cutouts of Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean and others. I love a good roadside attraction! The town of Marfa looks really neat, as well as Alpine, which you’ll drive through. But we were trying to get to our lodging before dark so we didn’t have time to stop. We also saw a herd of antelope and aoudad sheep off the side of the road, which was fun!
Where to Stay in Big Bend
You can stay in the park at the Chisos Mountain Lodge. There are also numerous funky, cool, unique lodging options all around the park. There’s not a lot of water and a lot of areas are off-grid, so that lends itself to the funky vibes.
We were looking for pet-friendly and quiet and our friends at The Travel Squad Podcast recommended Ten Bits Ranch so we stayed there. Their podcast is full of great trips for inspiration and tips for traveling!
Ten Bits Ranch was such a cool place! It’s only about 20 minutes from the Big Bend Park sign. It’s a little cluster of buildings set up to look like an old west town. We stayed in the Bath House, which has a pool inside! If you’re going when it’s hot out, I highly recommend that room! It also has a fenced-in area with a fire pit, which was so nice for chilling and letting the dogs just hang out with us. It was clean and comfortable.
The room next to us was the Jail and it also had a fenced-in fire pit area, so another great option if you’re traveling with dogs. I can’t tell you how nice it was to have a fenced area outside. I wish more places did that. And the ranch was quiet and surrounded by so much natural beauty. It’s really dark so the stars were incredible! I wish we had booked one more night just so we could have explored the grounds more – they have a whole private trail and area for guests that we didn’t even get to see.
Each room has a mini-fridge, microwave and Keurig and then there’s a community kitchen you can use for cooking or hanging out. If you’re coming with a group, this place would also be amazing!
Right before we got there, another couple said a coyote trotted right through the ranch and by our room. I would’ve liked to see that but with the dogs, it’s probably a good thing we didn’t. After we unpacked, we opened a bottle of wine, built a fire and looked up at the stars while the dogs enjoyed a bone and just being out of the truck. The stars are humongous and absolutely mesmerizing. We all slept good that night!
Driving Tour of Big Bend National Park
Most national parks aren’t pet-friendly, Big Bend included. But dogs are welcome wherever cars are and there are a ton of unpaved and primitive roads so we were able to find remote areas with no one else and let the dogs out.
When we travel with the dogs in national parks, we’re mainly doing driving tours vs hiking tours. We always leave the truck on with the AC running if we get out, but anything can happen, so we don’t leave them for long.
First Things First: My favorite way to start the day is by stopping at a local coffee shop but the only coffee shop was in Terlingua Ghost Town, which would have added about 20 minutes to our drive and Jess said no, booo! Our room had a Keurig but I had just packed some cans of premade coffee in the cooler, so we drank those.
The road from Terlingua just turns into the road that enters the park and the Welcome to Big Bend sign is only about 10 minutes past town. We lucked out and had the place to ourselves and were able to take our time getting some pics. Unfortunately, due to the time of day, the sun was right behind the sign but you do what you gotta do!
We had our America the Beautiful pass so we were able to enter the park for free. If you’re a current military, veteran, or Gold Star Family, you can grab yours free here.
Hitting the Park: One thing to know is that once you enter the park, it’s about a 30-minute drive to the visitor’s center. We entered on the West side of the park but the Panther Creek Junction Visitor’s Center had the Park stamp for my National Park Passport book so that was our first stop. This was a neat place with a big topographical map on a table so you can get the lay of the land. Do you collect souvenirs from your trips? We always get a magnet, so we grabbed that while we were here.
Jess wanted to see the Rio Grande river and some Hot Springs, so we decided to head towards the Rio Grande Village. Let me tell you, the views on the way there are so vast and so beautiful. The mountains and open road are just stunning. I kept rolling down my window to take pictures and videos – of course they never do it justice.
We followed the road all the way to where it ended, at the Boquillas Canyon Trail – past the Boquillas Canyon port of entry. You get great views of the Rio Grande river – there were even cows down there wading in the water and getting a drink – it was cool! We let the dogs out, took some pics, then headed to the Boquillas Canyon port of entry – this is where you can go into Boquillas del Carmen, Mexico.
This is a village in Mexico that people will visit while they’re there. You can take a horse or burro, a rowboat or wade if the water is low enough. There are restaurants and shops, people selling their crafts. You can learn more about that here.
After checking out that stop, we headed back through the park towards the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. Each portion of the park felt a little different. The vegetation and rock formations were varied. It was just incredibly beautiful.
The Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive ends at the Santa Elena Canyon – this is one of the most scenic parts of the park. We got out at the Santa Elena River Access spot and walked down to see the Rio Grande and took pictures. There is a giant rock wall that runs most of the Southern border of the park and it splits here where the river flows through.
The sheer size of the wall makes you feel so small. It really is jaw-dropping. We had fun exploring here for a bit. This was the busiest area of the park that day and even then we only saw a few groups of people. We did not go to the actual Santa Elena Canyon trail. We knew the dogs couldn’t go and it was going to be busy, and it was warmer that time of day so we skipped it.
But we did take a fun primitive road towards the exit of the park – the Old Maverick Road. This was probably our favorite road, haha! We literally saw one other vehicle the whole time – it was probably a 30-minute drive. It’s a caliche rock road, very dusty. But the views were stunning and we were able to get out with the dogs and walk a bit on the road.
This road spits you out at the entrance station so it was perfect.
End of the Day: It was about 4pm and I had heard we needed to eat at The Starlight Theatre in Terlingua Ghost Town so we headed that way. I’m glad we did because they open at 5pm and people were starting to show up and line up for dinner.
It’s an old theatre that has been turned into a restaurant. If you have to wait to eat, you can sit on The Porch outside. They’ll have live music some nights and serve drinks. It’s a fun atmosphere!
We got in pretty quickly – when they open, a lady will come out take in each group one at a time – they stagger it so everyone isn’t getting sat at once and the staff isn’t instantly overwhelmed.
The service was great, the food was delicious! We started with the brisket queso, which was so good! For drinks, I had a house margarita, a jalapeno margarita and Jess had the prickly pear margarita. All were great! For dinner, I had a ribeye, mashed potatoes and green beans. Jess got a trio of a steak, quail and shrimp. The quail had a blueberry sauce. It was all really great! For dessert we got the churros with the Henry’s Mexican vanilla ice cream. Do yourself a favor and order that. I’m still dreaming about it!
We left the dogs in the truck while we ate. It was nice and cool out and as much as we travel with them, the truck is their den. But after dinner, we headed back to the ranch. We were exhausted so we just hit the hay.
Day 2: We were heading home that day but our options were to just head North, the way we came, and then West. Or head back to Big Bend, drive West and then North. We figured we might as well also drive to Chisos Basin since we missed that the day before.
Chisos Basin is unlike any other area of the park. There’s a lot of vegetation and the rocks are more red. It reminded me a lot of Zion. I guess there are bear sightings there frequently but we didn’t see any. This is where the lodge and restaurant are and there’s a visitor center. It’s really beautiful!
We wanted to grab breakfast there but we missed it. They close for an hour between each meal. So we just used the wifi, bathrooms, let the dogs out and headed back on the road. At the Panther Junction Visitor Center, we headed North.
Once again, this area is really remote. We hardly saw any other vehicles. It was absolutely beautiful in its vastness and openness. We were able to let the dogs out at Dog Canyon Road, funnily enough, haha! You exit the park at Persimmon Gap and there’s another Big Bend National Park sign there if you need pics. I was tempted to stop but I knew Jess would not be a fan since we had quite a drive in front of us.
The Trip Home from Big Bend National Park
How you head home will obviously depend on how you got there. We were driving back to Northeast Texas and decided to stay in San Antonio that night. So if you’re leaving via San Antonio, I highly recommend this route.
When you exit the park, you’ll be on Highway 385. It goes to Marathon. We stopped at the French Grocer for coffee and let the dogs out at Gage Gardens. It’s pet-friendly and it’s a beautiful green space with fountains, a pond, a variety of trees – it’s a little oasis in the middle of the desert. The dogs were so happy to see grass, haha!
We decided to take the scenic route – shocking, I know, haha! We took Highway 90 West almost the whole way to San Antonio. This highway runs along the border and the gorgeous views continue. There are giant rock formations and it’s really remote. This route is actually the same time as taking Interstate 10, so you might as well take the peaceful route. We had already stopped but Amistad Reservoir would have been a great place to stop with the dogs – Lake View is a nice little town. Also, the Hondo Recreation Park was a great place to walk the dogs.
Final Day, the Most Texas Day Ever: We stayed at a hotel in San Antonio – unremarkable Marriott that I can’t remember. It was sufficient but wouldn’t stay there again. Jess had never been to the Alamo so we got up early and got there at 8:30am. We found a parking lot just a block away and it was nice and cool so we left the dogs in the truck and walked over.
It opens at 9am, so we got our tickets and were one of the first groups in. I had been there but it was more than 25 years ago. The Alamo itself is really small so it didn’t take long to go through. The grounds are beautiful and it’s near the River Walk so if you can stay in the area and eat and explore, it would definitely be worth it.
We got our magnet, grabbed some coffee and pastries at Vela Coffee – it was great and the people were super friendly! We were parked in the parking lot across the street at N Alamo St and E Travis.
Next on our list was seeing Luckenbach, TX – where Waylon, Willie and the boys have famously played. It was awesome! It’s only about an hour from The Alamo. We could have stayed there all day. It’s super pet-friendly – the let the dogs come into the bar when we ordered.
We took turns checking out the gift shop. Jess roped the steers. We took way too many pictures and just relaxed with a beer. Such a great stop!
From there, we stopped for lunch in Fredericksburg at West End Pizza. Fredericksburg is only 20 minutes down the road. We had originally planned to eat somewhere else but found parking right in front of the pizza place so felt like that was a sign, haha! They have a pet-friendly patio and cool vibes. We got the bruschetta, garlic knots and split a pizza – the veggie, add hamburger. It was all delicious.
Then it was time to head home. We did find a cool spot to walk the dogs on the way home at Llano River Lake, just across the bridge in Llano. The boys went for a swim, rolled in the grass and we headed home.
We got home around 7:30pm. It was a long day but the stops made it so much more fun.
Hopefully that gives you some ideas for planning your Big Bend National Park visit with your dogs! My Instagram has more pictures and videos, as well as my Texas highlight. Follow me there for more road trips, travel with dogs and trip inspiration. Let me know if you have any questions and I hope you get to see Big Bend’s rugged beauty for yourself!
