Avoiding a Disaster When Driving from Guadalupe to Big Bend

Guadalupe Mountains to Big Bend, an absolutely beautiful drive. If you are starting to plan your trip, be sure to check out our post Camping Meal with Kids.

Making the Drive

While camping at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, we received some local knowledge on the best way to make out trek southeast to Big Bend National park. 

Advice from a Park Ranger

Now, I love tips like this.  The local folks know the best ways to get around. When the wonderful park ranger offered advice on driving directions, I grabbed a scrap piece of paper and jotted it down.  “Sweetie, the trouble with the route your GPS will send you is it’s all old oil field roads. They are all beat up from truck traffic.” She told my DH in her cute Texas accent.  “The road is so rough, I don’t want you to get a flat. This way is about twenty minutes longer, but the road is so much nicer.”

She was right, the way she sent us was an immaculate stretch of asphalt through southwest Texas.  The drive was scenic through Mountains and valleys, ranches and amazing small towns.  Additionally, the drive is perfectly safe for towing a larger travel trailer like ours.

Where We Stayed

We departed White City, NM where we were staying at the appropriately named “White City RV Park.” (Review here).  Our destination was Big Bend Resort and Adventures (Review here) in Study-Butte/Terlingua Texas. (Both turned out to be great base camps for Carlsbad Caverns/Guadalupe Mountains and Big Bend respectively. For tips on great kid friendly hikes check here for Guadalupe Mountains/Carlsbad Caverns and here for Big Bend)

The big tip from the National Park Ranger was to disregard the GPS directions from White City, drive past the Guadalupe Mountains National Park visitor center on 62 heading southwest and make a left turn onto Texas route 54 southbound.  The views of the southern Guadalupe Mountains were spectacular along this stretch. While we were there the “mountain pink” plant was in bloom and gave many of our views of far away mountains a pink/purple tone.

Stopping for Gas

The first town is Van Horn, it is a cute town that looks exactly like what you would expect a south west Texas town to look like, stucco homes clad in different colors.  Gas is available (gas is few and far between in this area of the country and better to be safe than sorry).

We stopped at the Pilot gas station for a lunch break and fuel stop.  This was a mistake!  In hindsight stopping at either of the other two gas stations in Van Horn would have been easier for a family towing a large travel trailer especially if your rig needs gas and not diesel.  The lot is very tight and it was especially busy at lunchtime.  DH needed a couple spotters while navigating that lot.

It wasn’t all bad though, a roadrunner ran right through the lot while we were fueling and stretching our legs and was a great treat for the kiddos, even DH got a laugh at this sight, and made a cute “meep meep” noise at the oblivious animal.

Sights to Watch For

Continue south on Texas 90 through beautiful desolate southwest Texas.  There is a very popular and weird roadside attraction on this stretch, the “Prada Marfa” store.  I guess it’s not really a store, more of an artistic piece from the nearby artsy town of Marfa.  It is striking contrast to see something like the Prada Marfa in the middle of complete desolation.  Be carful as you approach this area, as instagramers will be in the road taking pictures with almost no regard for full size SUV’s towing 5,000 pound travel trailers at highway speeds.

Continue south from the Prada Marfa through Valentine, on your way to Marfa.  Along the way you will see a crazy blimp, a little research shows that it is a tethered weather radar.  DH found this significantly more interesting than Prada, but he is not what you would consider the artsy type.

The next two towns are Marfa and Alpine.  Both are quite interesting and artsy towns.  These would be great stops for lunch and gas and exploring, but we had an agenda and wanted to get to our campsite before dinner.

In Alpine, be on the lookout for Texas route 118 and take a right and follow southbound.  This will take you all the way to Terlingua/Study Butte and will round out your journey for the day.  For the most part, this is a rather flat drive until 118.  There are many ups and downs on this stretch so take it slow and enjoy the scenery.

Tire Trouble

A word of caution, we picked up a nail in one of our trailer wheels on the way home on the same stretch of 118.  Luckily our tire pressure monitor system recognized it right away about the same time we were arriving in Alpine (review of our travel trailer tire pressure monitor system here). We were recommended a tire shop that got us back on the road right away.  The tire technician asked me if we were on our way back from Big Bend.  He told us that all his punctures come in from that area.  It may be a particularly treacherous stretch since it is so little traveled.  Always know how to change a tire before you leave home!

I hope you enjoyed this post!  The road trip between Guadeloupe Mountains/Carlsbad Caverns is one of the more beautiful and least congested drives we have been on in a long time. If you enjoy feeling like you are the only person within a hundreds miles, this trip is for you!

If you have made this trip before or are planning one yourself, leave a comment below. Planning a trip to Big Bend National Park? Be sure to check out our 5 day itinerary for families. We’ve also created a national park guide to visiting White Sands National Park with kids.

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.