An Outsider’s Inside Guide to Big Bend

West Texas is full of adventures (and headaches). Here’s what you need to know when you visit this remote, rejuvenating part of the state.

The Big Bend is unlike any other place.

An art piece in the middle of the desert in the area near “mailbox road” north of Terlingua and Big Bend National Park.

This pocket of the Chihuahuan Desert between the Rio Grande to the south and Interstate 10 to the north. When you look at a map of Texas, this is the “big bend” on the left side of the state.

The towns that bring the area to life each have their own special flavor, and none is as unusual as Marfa, which has slowly become as popular as the nearby Big Bend National Park as THE place to visit.

This Presidio county seat has become an international art destination and is home to the Chinati Foundation, a sprawling art campus built in old army barracks that once housed German prisoners of war.

A prickly pear outside Cochineal restaurant in Marfa.

The truth is that I didn’t love Marfa at first.

It’s a high desert town without the sweet smell of piñon that fills the air in New Mexico. No one is here on their way to ski, like at similar places in Colorado.

You’re as likely to run into someone from New York City as Dallas or Houston.

There will most certainly be a wedding on the weekend of your visit.

My first trip was in 2009, when Julian was a toddler. The weather was cold. It took a lot of work to keep him out of the cactus. We came to Marfa to see the Hotel Paisano, where Elizabeth Taylor and the cast of “Giant” stayed while filming nearby.

One of the cemeteries in Marfa.

I knew there was “art stuff,” but I wasn’t expecting art art — and the pretension that comes with it. I didn’t like that all the restaurants were closed more often than they were open. There weren’t any other families with kids around. It was too sleepy.

But over the years, I’ve kept going back, to Marfa and the wider Big Bend area.

And now, I don’t just enjoy visiting. My nervous system craves it.

I’ve stayed at off-the-beaten-path Airbnbs or car campsites deep in the belly of the park. I’ve stayed at a tent at El Cosmico in the middle of July and at a dingy place in Alpine. Fancy ranches in Terlingua Ranch? Eco houses made from mud? Check and check.

To put Big Bend in Charles Moore’s words about placemaking, we all have a different orientation to nature, to mountains, to heat, to art, to being offline, to hearing nothing but the sound of the wind blowing across the desert.

Here’s how I’ve learned to treasure this prickly place, step by step, starting at this incredible oasis…

Balmorhea State Park is home to San Solomon Springs, which is open for swimming year-round.