Took the 4Runner to Big Bend National Park

[zeppelin]

A few pics. 4R is bone stock. We went down one pretty rough road, but I never even had to take it out of 4WD HI or never had to lock the diff. There are some other primitive roads that I would like to try next time I go back, but my wife's patience was starting to grow thin:

 

[BlairB]

Looks like fun, I am glad to see your 4Runner getting some use

Thinking of doing any mods in the future?

 

[zeppelin]

Looks like fun, I am glad to see your 4Runner getting some use

Thinking of doing any mods in the future?

Looking at some Revos right now. That's about it.

I have too many other things to spend money on right now.

 

[BlairB]

Yeah I know how that is.

Scratch up your rig at all? Those pics make it look like some of that shrubbery is pretty mean

 

[Fuzion]

2164
thats alot of miles
how did you do that?

 

[zeppelin]

Yeah I know how that is.

Scratch up your rig at all? Those pics make it look like some of that shrubbery is pretty mean

I got some light scratches, but I'm convinced that they will come out with a good cleaning and waxing.

 

[zeppelin]

2164
thats alot of miles
how did you do that?

Texas is big.

1225 mile round trip to just get there and back.

The other thousand or so miles were taking scenic drives and driving around the park. The park itself is a good sixty miles across -- and if I drove across it to see something I had to drive back that same way to get back to where I started. Big spaces out there.

 

[Fuzion]

wow

im from TX too

 

[BDL]

How about that - I was there last week, and my round trip was almost exactly the same as yours (2,130 miles).

Unlike you, I managed to put some pretty good scratches into both sides of my 08 Land Cruiser, courtesy of the mesquite trees and cactus. A bit painful to see on a new vehicle, but that's what it's made for, I guess.

What road did you do? We hiked Pine Canyon, so we did Glenn Springs Road and Pine Canyon road, along with some of the better roads.

 

[zeppelin]

How about that - I was there last week, and my round trip was almost exactly the same as yours (2,130 miles).

Unlike you, I managed to put some pretty good scratches into both sides of my 08 Land Cruiser, courtesy of the mesquite trees and cactus. A bit painful to see on a new vehicle, but that's what it's made for, I guess.

What road did you do? We hiked Pine Canyon, so we did Glenn Springs Road and Pine Canyon road, along with some of the better roads.

The only roads we ended up doing inside the park were the Paint Gap Road (rough, but only 3.9 miles) and the Old Maverick Road (basically a dirt road with a few dips).

My goal for the week was to do the old River Road inside the park, but we just never could find enough time to do it.

I also really wanted to do the Glenn Springs and Pine Canyon Road with the Pine Canyon hike. How was that? We thought about doing it our last day before we headed to Del Rio, but decided it was time to go and we needed to get on the road.

The other road I missed was that I wanted to at least go up the Old Ore Road to Ernst Tinaja. I was told that was really cool.

I guess I have a lot of reasons to go back now, though.

We did most of our driving outside the park. One road we did was the Casa Piedra Road from Marfa down to Presidio. It partially cuts through Big Bend Ranch State Park. It was basically just a windy, dirt road, but it was still fun. I had to be careful not to get airborne on a few of the cattle guards. If you look on a map, go south of Marfa, then branch of to the east. The map I'm looking at (google) shows the road going through Perdiz, Plata, Casa Piedra, and then down to Presidio. We did this drive at dusk.

The best off-road drive we did was the Pinto Canyon drive. This 30-40 mile road goes from Ruidosa up to Marfa (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=29.984379,-104.628468&spn=0.095457,0.160675&z=13).

You really didn't need 4WD -- maybe just high clearance, but it was just a neat, pretty drive because we didn't see a single other person the whole time we were out there. Very seldom travelled. The road had a few twistys and drop-offs that made my stomach hurt a bit. It was a great time.

 

[BDL]

Pine Canyon was great, but like everything else in the park last week, it was busier than we thought (spring break is their biggest week of the year). I'm under the impression that it's normally a pretty quiet spot, but there were three other vehicles at the trailhead and I think I got some of my scratches trying to pass people coming the other way on the narrow road. Agree you don't need 4WD so much as high clearance. We also did Dagger Flat, which I think is like Old Maverick - you could do it in a passenger car if you're careful in a couple of spots and not too attached to the car. Pine Canyon, in my opinion, would not be passable to a passenger car but would be easy for, say, a 2WD 4runner.

Old Ore Road was on my list as well, but we just ended up doing other stuff. I'd like to go back some time other than spring break when things are quieter and do both Old Ore and River Roads.

I didn't know about the road south out of Marfa - only passed through it on US 90. The road you're describing sounds great.