Hiking Big Bend National Park

Rating:
Summary: The Big Bend is Big
Review: Big Bend National Park boasts one of the finest hikes in the world: the 12.6 mile loop from the Basin to the South Rim and back again. At the South Rim, elevation 7,300, the views of the Chihuahua desert go on forever with hardly a sign that the species Homo Sapiens exists. At this elevation in the Chisos mountains the vegetation is more reminiscent of the Rocky Mountains than of the desert. There is a thrill too in the signs forbidding children from hiking because of the danger from mountain lions.

This book describes 44 hikes from .2 to 19 miles long in Big Bend National Park and three in neighboring Big Bend Ranch State Park. The two parks are remote and immense, totalling together more than 1,500 square miles. The description of each hike includes a map, directions about how to get to the trail head, elevations, difficulty, and hiking traffic, which is light to non existent for most trails. This is lonely country away from a very few public facilities. Water is not available on most hikes in this desert area.

This is a well-written and illustrated trail guide book which is well worth your investment if you plan to visit and hike Big Bend.

Smallchief

Rating:
Summary: Excellent addition to a Texas hiker/backpacker's library
Review: Laurence Parent is a talented and prolific Texas nature photographer whose hiking and camping guides are a staple both on my bookshelf and in my backpack.

In Hiking Big Bend, Parent's keen eye is turned towards one of Texas' largest and most rugged parks, ensuring even the smallest of details, if worthy of note, is shared with readers. A borrowed copy of Hiking Big Bend came with me on a week-long camping trip to the park in October 2001, and upon my return home I purchased my own copy. Though lacking photos, the text serves dual roles as a trail by trail hiking guide and written "memory book", chock full of details about the parks history, geology, wildlife and natural phenomena.

Couple this text with the National Park Service's three-booklet guide to the park's hiking trails, paved roadways and unpaved/offroad trails and you will be set to plan and enjoy your travels in Big Bend National Park.