Road to Big Bend

Road to Big Bend. Kinda sounds like a Bob Hope-Bing Crosby movie.

The wide open of west Texas may not be the ideal setting for a comedy but it sure is a great location as a photographer.

Or even just as a place to truly get away from it all.

I headed west on the open road into clear skies. It is a ten+ hour trip from Cowtown and it is a good drive. I always like travelling west as the farther you go the few people there are. Nothing like going east where there are little towns every 5 miles. Go west and you start to understand distance.

West I went. Across the hills, mesas, and rolling prairies of Texas. Then across the flat Permian Basin. That's the object that foils most people. But get past it to the Pecos River and things start to change.

Get past Fort Stockton and you are into the big country.

Mountains. High grasslands. Big ranches. Bigger views.

Finally arriving in the ranch lands around Marathon you truly feel you are out west. It is like walking into the movie Giant (which was filmed outside Marfa about an hour west of Marathon).

It is when I get here that I know I am out in the good country. The big open.

I have included a few images from that big open range around Marathon. The vastness of the land here is awe inspiring, I can only hope an image can begin to even capture it.

My trusty Honda Element loaded with camping gear and ready for a big adventure.

Another of the signs of the ranchers out here.

The third image is of the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park-this is my destination. After leaving the highlands around Marathon the road slopes down toward the border. The land becomes drier and hotter-the desert comes into full force. Then after one crosses Persimmon Gap you finally see the Chisos in the distance.

There they are after 10 hours on the road.