Frommer's National Parks of the American West - Don Laine [45]
archaeology, human history, and especially the flora and fauna of the Big Bend area, with a museum plus 2½ acres of desert gardens with a self-guided walk among the various plants of the Chihuahuan Desert. There is also a gift shop and bookstore. Gates are open daily year-round from 8am to 4:30pm (closed Dec 25); admission costs $3 (free for children under 12) and is also good for the Fort Leaton State Historic Site (see below).
Continuing west, you enter Big Bend Ranch State Park, P.O. Box 2319, Presidio, TX 79845 (☎ 432/229-3416; www.tpwd.state.tx.us), which covers some 290,000 acres of Chihuahuan Desert wilderness along the Rio Grande. Perhaps even more remote and rugged than Big Bend National Park, this mostly undeveloped state park (also called Big Bend Ranch Natural Area on some signs) contains two mountain ranges, extinct volcanoes, scenic canyons, a wide variety of desert plants, and wildlife including javelina, mountain lions, deer, coyotes, a variety of lizards, several poisonous snakes, and numerous birds, including golden eagles and peregrine falcons. There is also a small herd of Texas longhorn cattle, a reminder of the property's ranching days. Several outfitters offer river trips as well as mountain biking and hiking excursions in the state park. See "Other Sports & Activities," earlier in this chapter.
The 50-mile Farm Road 170 between Lajitas and Presidio goes through the park, providing a wonderful scenic drive for 28 miles along the Rio Grande, and also offering access to several put-in and take-out points for rafts and canoes. The road is winding and hilly in places, with no shoulders and a maximum speed limit in most places of 45mph. It meanders along the Rio Grande, passing among hillsides dotted with mesquite, yucca, ocotillo, prickly pear cactus, and a variety of desert shrubs. There are pullouts with picnic tables (protected from the weather by fake American Indian teepees). Although paved, the road is subject to flash floods and rock slides, so we do not recommend it during or immediately after heavy rains.
The park also has several miles of roads that require high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicles, and about 30 miles of hiking and backpacking trails, with trailheads along FM 170. There are also a number of primitive camping areas. Those planning trips into the park can get permits and information (including a very good trail guide) at Barton Warnock Environmental Education Center (see above), Fort Leaton State Historic Site (see below), or the ranch administrative offices. Those driving through the park on FM 170 are not required to pay the entrance fee and can get out of their vehicles to look around, but should generally stay within sight of their vehicles.
Just west of Big Bend Ranch State Park is Fort Leaton State Historic Site, 4 miles east of Presidio on FM 170 (☎ 432/229-3416; www.tpwd.state.tx.us/ park/fortleat). Admission to the site costs $3 (free for children under 12, also good for the Warnock center). The site is a restored fort and trading post that is best known for the violence perpetrated both by and toward its residents. It was built by Benjamin Leaton in 1848, just after the end of the Mexican-American War, in which the United States acquired most of the Southwest from Mexico. Leaton had been working as a "scalp hunter"—killing American Indians for the governments of several Mexican states—and built the adobe fortress for his family and employees and to use as a base of operations for a trading business. It was said at the time that part of this business included encouraging area bands of Apaches and Comanches to steal livestock from Mexican settlements, which they would trade to Leaton for guns and ammunition. Leaton, considered a generally unsavory character, was known locally as un mal hombre—Spanish for a bad man.
After his death in 1851, Leaton's widow married Edward Hall, who moved into the fort, from which he operated a freight