12th Annual Big Bend Adventure

We'll have four days & nights in Big Bend National Park to explore some of the most scenic country in Texas, heck, the world!  We'll be camping in the group campground in the Chisos Basin. There's an abundance of natural riches to explore inside the park and activities include hiking, canoeing/kayaking, rafting, rock climbing, mountain biking, horseback riding, wildlife viewing, etc. Organized activities will get posted to the HCO calendar as we get closer to the trip date and we'll also have signup sheets available for each day's activities, the night before.

We'll also have a pre-trip planning meeting in the middle of October to discuss what to bring, what to expect, etc. This will be posted to the HCO calendar shortly.

Big Bend National Park encompasses more than 800,000 acres in southwest Texas. For more than 1,000 miles, the Rio Grande forms the international boundary between Mexico and the United States; Big Bend National Park administers approximately one-quarter of that boundary. Within the 118 twisting miles that also define the park’s southern boundary, the river’s southeasterly flow changes abruptly to the northeast and forms the “big bend” of the Rio Grande.

Transportation

Transportation will be by carpool.  A pre-trip meeting will be posted a few weeks before the trip to allow people to arrange carpooling.  There will also be a forum in the message board setup for the trip.

Thursday and Monday will be driving days, leaving us Thursday late afternoon - Monday morning to enjoy the park. Most folks leave early Thursday morning to drive out there but feel free to leave Wednesday night if you want to get a jump start.

Meals

The trip cost includes 11 meals (Thursday dinner; Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Friday-Sunday; and a Monday morning send-off breakfast). Meals will be prepared in a community kitchen.  Everyone will be asked to pitch in with meal preparation, cleaning and camp duties.  We will have a sign-up sheet at the pre-trip meeting for this purpose.  Bring snacks if you want, and your own adult beverages.

Please email me (administrator@hillcountryoutdoors.com) if you have any dietary restrictions that we need to accommodate.

Dining and cooking gear (pots, etc.) will be provided. It's BYOB for adult beverages. Non-alcoholic beverages and drinking water will be provided.

What to Bring

You will need to bring your own personal camping gear (tent, sleeping bag, flashlight, hiking boots, etc). Pack and dress in layers - it can get really cold at night and hot as blazes during the day so pack accordingly. An air mattress or sleeping pad is highly recommended - the ground is hard out there, and ear plugs too - those bears snore pretty loud in West Texas!

Click here for a checklist.

No refunds if you cancel after October 15th - find someone else to take your spot and collect $ from him/her.

Still need more convincing? Check out this short video that Texas Parks & Wildlife prepared last year, largely based on our Big Bend trip.