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Lajitas
Golf Course, Lajitas
Lajitas features West Texas luxury at its best. What was originally a cavalry post established to protect the river crossing is now the site of the fabulous Lajitas Resort. Here at “Texas’s Ultimate Hideout” you will find a private airport, a golf course with an optional hole 11A in Mexico, the Agavita Spa, and fine dining. Be sure to treat Lajitas’s beer-guzzling goat, Mayor Clay Henry III, to a round at the Lajitas Trading Post. Lajitas has 92 first-class accommodations.
Slide show about Big Bend
Eat! Sleep! Terlingua!Barton Warnock Environmental Education Center
One mile east of Lajitas on FM 170
432-424-3327
tpwd.state.tx.us/park/barton
Serving as an interpretive center for the Big Bend, the center offers insights into the region’s natural treasures, such as its juniper and grassland landscapes. Other topics include Big Bend’s biozones, stewardship of the land, excellent geology in “Walk Through Time,” and the impact of humans on the Chihuahuan Desert. Two and a half acres of desert gardens, rotating exhibits, and regular nature programs impart an in-depth understanding of Big Bend. Open daily 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Admission: $3, 12 and under free. Includes access to Big Bend Ranch State Park and Fort Leaton Historic Site. Call for guided tours.
Lajitas Trading Post
1 Main, Lajitas, 79852
432-424-5000
A classic trading post, built in 1899, this place served miners back when Old Lajitas was booming. Now, as the home of Mayor Clay Henry III, it’s still going, stocked with groceries and everything else to meet your camping and travel needs. Open daily 8 a.m.–7 p.m.
Travel Itinerary
Big Bend National Park, Terlingua, Lajitas, Presidio - 5 Days
Majestic canyons and towering cliffs make Big Bend National Park an absolute must for hikers, bikers, birders, and all-around adventurers. This is Texas at its most rugged; it’s not surprising that the area attracts so many visitors each year, most of them filled with awe at this incredible landscape.
The park itself covers more than 800,000 acres, so it will take you a few days to explore it. Tune in to the serenity of the Chisos Mountains (the only complete mountain range within a U.S. national park) at the Chisos Mountain Lodge, located right in the park.
Have dinner at the Chisos Mountain Lodge Restaurant, which features Tex-Mex food and a selection of wines. It also opens at 7 a.m. for breakfast. In a hurry to tour Big Bend? Pick up a breakfast-in-a-box to take with you.
Terlingua, which celebrates the “three languages,” or “tres linguas” –of the Indians, Mexicans, and Anglos–that once dominated the area, is known for its prestigious chili cookoffs. If you’ve earned a showing at Terlingua, you’ve got some good chili in that pot. Pick up gems, rocks, and fossils at Many Stones Gifts. Stay overnight at the Terlingua Ranch Lodge, located at the foot of the Corazones Peaks and the Christmas Mountains, and enjoy lunch or dinner at the ranch’s Bad Rabbit Café.
Or if that scenario doesn’t suit, hold out for ultimate Western luxury at the Lajitas Resort on the Rio Grande. It’s called “the ultimate hideout” for good reason. This luxe resort attracts both celebrities and tourists for its gorgeous setting, spa, top-notch equestrian center, gourmet cuisine, and golf course–which includes an optional par one in Mexico, Hole 11A. Explore the desert on horseback with an hour-long ride, an overnight excursion, or a one- to two-day horseback/rafting trip.
It’s easy to pretend you’re touring Italy’s Amalfi Drive as you maneuver your ride along the two-lane River Road (FM 170), packed with hairpin turns and steep grades, to Presidio. Put on the brakes at El Patio (O’Reilly Street) and grab some real Mexican food before heading to Peguis Canyon, 2,000 feet deep, with 100-mile views from the top.
On the way out of Big Bend Country, have one final picnic lunch, at Big Bend Ranch State Park, 300,000 more acres of wilderness that stretches along the Rio Grande. Once privately owned, it’s now open to all and encompasses some of the most remote territory in all of Texas, with ancient extinct volcanoes (calderas), deep gorges, Indian pictographs, and miles of hiking trails.
