Off-road terrain in Big Bend

9/14/09: Here's a quick video, (click on the picture below), of some of the terrain on the way to the first campsite at Big Bend. Ellie Mae, (my camper/trailer hauling my motorcycle), told the tow vehicle, "Just lead the way", and she followed along just fine. Definitely a four-wheel-drive area and I was glad to have a heavy-duty 4wd vehicle.


I can say a few things about the terrain in Big Bend N.P. The park has it's own play area for off-road vehicles. The park has numerous dirt roads, some for which 4wd is recommended, but they've also groomed an off-road area for off-road vehicles only. I did not approach this area, thinking I was not qualified or experienced in rock-climbing my Hummer. For me, there were enough challenges on the dirt roads leading around the rest of the park. There are many "arroyos". These are washes that are either filled with quickly moving water, simply dry washouts formed from sudden rains. The desert terrain has very little shrubs or plant flora to keep water from flowing across the land during a rain. So when it rains, water flows downhill. The water collects into streams and runs quickly across roads and trails or whatever is in its path. Although there is some infrastructure in the desert Southwest to allow for passage of the water without interrupting automotive traffic, there's no such accommodation in the national park. When it rains, it takes out the roadway. The roads are maintained, which may include grading to improve conditions, or simply signage warning of the impasse. It's not easy to get a sense of the extreme terrain in the video above unless you note the tipping of the camera as the truck rolled over the ledges of the arroyo. On each bank, there were at least twelve inch vertical drops. After the truck negotiated the ledges, the trailer, Ellie Mae, followed along without complaint. The only issues I had with the trailer and rough terrain was when the motorcycle came loose from its tie-downs inside the trailer. This happened several times. Fortunately there was no damage to the motorcycle and none to the trailer. I would note that it wasn't until halfway through the trip that I installed a more secure means of latching the bunks inside the trailer to the side walls. Numerous times previous, the bunks would come unhitched and fall against the motorcycle. I did check on their status frequently and the motorcycle suffered no damage.