This park is quite a distance from where I live and is in a rather remote part of the country.'It borders Mexico. And I heard that this park would be flooded with people during the week of spring break (mid-March). So I planned my entire trip around that heard news. I checked normal average temperatures for the first week of March: 30's at night and 60's during the day. I just had to hope that Kansas and Oklahoma and New Mexico did not have an early March snow to mes with my trip plans.

This park, which should have been #116 on my list of national park sites to visit, was to be the first main place to visit on this trip (not counting the two universities in Oklahoma that were along my route to Big Bend). I wanted to be at the park at sunrise (7:15 am). That way, as I have often seen at national parks around the country, I could be in and out of there before anyone else visited the park.

Original plans was to spend the night in Ft. Stockton then drive the two hours, before sunrise, to the northeast entry called Persimmon Gap (highway 385). Then drive through much of the park to the place called Santa Elena Canyon Overlook and head northwest on highway 118 through Alpine and on to Fort Davis and El Pasp. But things changed.

First, while using Google Streets to "drive" through the park, it looked pretty much the same monotonous scenery the whole way to Santa Elena. So I changed plans to go in and out of the northwest entry which was much closer to Santa Elena. But that meant going down and back on highway 118. So the day before I drove the extra distance from Fort Stockton to Alpine to spend the night. Then, I was to leave two-and-a-half hours before sunrise to be at Santa Elena just before sunrise. But that meant I would be driving quite a while in the dark. I heard there is much wildlife in the Big Bend area thus I would have needed to drive 45 MPH to allow time to stop if some wildlife jumped out in front of me. So, leave three hours before sunrise. And I would be doubling back on the same highway 118 to Alpine to continue on to Fort Davis.

Second, while using Google satellite photos and the 3D "tilt" view, I noticed that the cliffs I wanted to walk through at sunrise are actually on the Mexico side. I did not bring my passport. And, third, I learned that the Subn Bowl was having an event the afternoon I wanted to be there to photograph the place. That meant I needed to be there many hours earlier, i.e. early in the morning. It was a three-hour drive from Alpine. So, I decided to skip Big Bend, make a quick right-at-sunrise visit to Ft. Davis, then get to the Sun Bowl first in El Paso (instead of the original plan of last of three places in town) plus the UTEP sign just south of the stadium.

So this park goes into the list I usually have per trip called "Places Missed Seeing". Doubtful I will ever visit this park since it is so hard to get to (fly to El Paso and drive three hours just to get to the entrance). But, never say never.