Bbrsp

[KenB]

Curious to hear if any one has been on the old ranch roads at Big Bend Ranch State Park? They're calling them "Roads to Nowhere", and the write up by TPWD really has my interest. They have opened up about 70 miles of these unmaintained roads for 4x4 travel. The write up is pretty straight to the point - "If you have standard 4 ply tread/2 ply sidewalls, stay home" - "not designed for H1 or H2 Hummers ...won't fit" - "Without fail, bring a USGS topo map" - "if your tailpipe hangs low...it is going to be rearranged".

 

[IOPort51]

Curious to hear if any one has been on the old ranch roads at Big Bend Ranch State Park? They're calling them "Roads to Nowhere", and the write up by TPWD really has my interest. They have opened up about 70 miles of these unmaintained roads for 4x4 travel. The write up is pretty straight to the point - "If you have standard 4 ply tread/2 ply sidewalls, stay home" - "not designed for H1 or H2 Hummers ...won't fit" - "Without fail, bring a USGS topo map" - "if your tailpipe hangs low...it is going to be rearranged".

I have heard about them but know no one that has traveled them. From what I have seen it looks like the kind of place where a mistake or being unprepared and poorly built could land you in the Guinness book of world screw ups, or maybe even win you a Darwin award. It is on my list of places I have to go before I go under.
Does TP&WD have a web site for it?

 

[KenB]

I'll try to put in a link:
TPWD: Big Bend Ranch State Park

It's one I'm just gonna have to try. Darwin had his chance.

Check the El Solitario newsletter for the write up.

 

[IOPort51]

I'll try to put in a link:
TPWD: Big Bend Ranch State Park

It's one I'm just gonna have to try. Darwin had his chance.

Check the El Solitario newsletter for the write up.

I am trying to think of a way to carry two spare tires.
it also makes me wonder what kind of mileage I get in 4xlow.
I always wanted the cj pinstriped.

 

[LongHorn]

Curious to hear if any one has been on the old ranch roads at Big Bend Ranch State Park? They're calling them "Roads to Nowhere", and the write up by TPWD really has my interest. They have opened up about 70 miles of these unmaintained roads for 4x4 travel. The write up is pretty straight to the point - "If you have standard 4 ply tread/2 ply sidewalls, stay home" - "not designed for H1 or H2 Hummers ...won't fit" - "Without fail, bring a USGS topo map" - "if your tailpipe hangs low...it is going to be rearranged".

I've been all the ones that were open up to 2 years ago + Black Gap WMA & Big Bend Ranch.

 

[KenB]

We've done the roads in the National Park, but haven't been to the Black Gap WMA. We went to the BB Ranch State Park a couple of years ago, but only drove the Main Road in the Dodge PU. Didn't think the back roads were open then, but wouldn't have tried in that truck. Are those roads as wild as they make them out to be?

 

[IOPort51]

I've been all the ones that were open up to 2 years ago + Black Gap WMA & Big Bend Ranch.

so, how do you rate these? are they something you could do in your soccer mom Cherokee or did you have a good work out with the mighty 8.

 

[2lostspace]

Sounds like a fun place to check out.
So which one of you guys are going to go and get pictures of the trails for all of us in BFE?

 

[LongHorn]

so, how do you rate these? are they something you could do in your soccer mom Cherokee or did you have a good work out with the mighty 8.

There are a few places to tough for a soccer mom rig, but a lot depends on the weather. As anybody from West Texas can tell you a flash flood can be scary. some places can get a little tight,

 

[2lostspace]

Thanks for the pictures LongHorn!! I will have to put this on the list of places to see when I get down to the real world.

 

[LongHorn]

Thanks for the pictures LongHorn!! I will have to put this on the list of places to see when I get down to the real world.

De Nada mi Vato.

 

[LongHorn]

Big Bend Gate.






Same gate next day.
No place but Texas

 

[LongHorn]

so, how do you rate these? are they something you could do in your soccer mom Cherokee or did you have a good work out with the mighty 8.

Speaking of "Moms" Cherokee.

 

[KenB]

Good pics, Longhorn, but I'm holding out for some from BB Ranch State Park. Is that El Jardin Canyon run still open to yanqui's? Not sure I want to take the CJ south of the border. We ran the Black Gap road in BBNP last summer, and it was great. Real rock crawlers wouldn't appreciate it, I guess, but we did. Getting caught in a thunderstorm half way through made it real interesting.

 

[LongHorn]

Good pics, Longhorn, but I'm holding out for some from BB Ranch State Park. Is that El Jardin Canyon run still open to yanqui's? Not sure I want to take the CJ south of the border. We ran the Black Gap road in BBNP last summer, and it was great. Real rock crawlers wouldn't appreciate it, I guess, but we did. Getting caught in a thunderstorm half way through made it real interesting.

I use to drive back & forth across the border like it wasn't there.
Now days it's just to risky.

 

[BajaEdition]

I use to drive back & forth across the border like it wasn't there.
Now days it's just to risky.

We used to go down Baja several times a year and do turnarounds for lobster about every other month. It has been over a year since a lobster run and we really do a lot of planning just to do our yearly new years run.
I saw a lot of stuff I have never seen this year, like guys afraid to go somewhere or boarding up windows at night.
I hope this drug war ends soon, we are now giving out special training to the Mexican police forces in San Diego and they seem to be getting some kind of hand on it, but the results are slow coming.

 

[IOPort51]

We have lost the "war on drugs", that happened a long time ago. To expect an organization as inherently corrupt as the Mexican legal system to do anything other than exacerbate it is not going to happen, IMHO.
I was amazed to learn that 60%, or better, of the border violence is not involving Cocaine but rather Pot! I think the cost of prohibition has outweighed the result of legalization.
There is only one way to win this game and that is not to play.
I do not want to hijack this thread, and I want very much to do these roads in the BB and have started gearing up to that end but one of the prerequisites will be to have my permit to carry current and arrange to travel in a "safe" number.atriot:
by definition, what is the difference between a "border" and a "frontier"?

Baja; hell of a trip pal, glad you are back in one chunk and wish I could have been there.

We used to go down Baja several times a year and do turnarounds for lobster about every other month. It has been over a year since a lobster run and we really do a lot of planning just to do our yearly new years run.
I saw a lot of stuff I have never seen this year, like guys afraid to go somewhere or boarding up windows at night.
I hope this drug war ends soon, we are now giving out special training to the Mexican police forces in San Diego and they seem to be getting some kind of hand on it, but the results are slow coming.

 

[KenB]

IO, don't consider that a hijack. Beside the usual mechanical malfunctions, etc. that can happen, one of the concerns in running the back roads in that area has to be the possibility of meeting up with a group of "exchange students". The NP even gives some direction on what to do if it happens. (Basically, run like hell and tell a Ranger.) When we first went to BBNP back in '61, you could drive down to the river crossing at Boquillas, and for a few bucks get a ride across the river in a rowboat, ride a burro up the hill, drink a cerveza and pick up handmade souvenirs. The Park Service even had it listed in their brochure as one of the things to do. After 9/11 they shut it down. Now, you have to go through a Border Patrol checkpoint when you leave the park, which is basically kind of stupid. Do they really expect someone who has waded the river and hiked through the desert to try and drive through that one spot on the highway?

 

[LongHorn]

IO, don't consider that a hijack. Beside the usual mechanical malfunctions, etc. that can happen, one of the concerns in running the back roads in that area has to be the possibility of meeting up with a group of "exchange students". The NP even gives some direction on what to do if it happens. (Basically, run like hell and tell a Ranger.) When we first went to BBNP back in '61, you could drive down to the river crossing at Boquillas, and for a few bucks get a ride across the river in a rowboat, ride a burro up the hill, drink a cerveza and pick up handmade souvenirs. The Park Service even had it listed in their brochure as one of the things to do. After 9/11 they shut it down. Now, you have to go through a Border Patrol checkpoint when you leave the park, which is basically kind of stupid. Do they really expect someone who has waded the river and hiked through the desert to try and drive through that one spot on the highway?

You got me I wasn't born till 61', but I rode in that same rowboat from 66' on long enough to remember the cerveza was warm due to lack of helio.

 

[KenB]

Yeah, it wouldn't turn the bottle blue. As I recall, they used to set the bottles in front of a swamp cooler to take the edge off.
And the rowboat wasn't rowed. The guy actually waded the river pulling it with a rope. Talk about a hard way to make a living.