Texas Trail Running: Big Bend National Park – iRunFar.com
By David Hanenburg on 08 Nov 2010 at 12:31 pm | Tagged as: texas trail running
Sometimes considered “three parks in one,” Big Bend includes mountain, desert, and river environments. An hour’s drive can take you from the banks of the Rio Grande to a mountain basin nearly a mile high. Here, you can explore one of the last remaining wild corners of the United States, and experience unmatched sights, sounds, and solitude. – NPS
Meghan Hicks wrote a great article over at iRunFar.com, highlighting an epic trail running location in southwest Texas – Big Bend National Park. Meghan highlights the terrain, climate, three trail runs of varying difficulty, and where to find some grub and gear. This is a great resource for anyone interested in exploring the park.
Check it out at iRunFar.com.
Big Bend Ultra Run
The Big Bend Ultra (50/25/10 km) trail run in the park takes place on January 16, 2011. Currently the 50/25 km is sold out but the 10 km still has entries available.
More Park Resources
If you are looking for more detailed information on the trails and park history, here are a few items that may be useful.
Website
National Park Services – Big Bend
Popular Big Bend National Park guides
Brief description: Hiking Big Bend highlights 47 trails of various difficulty ranging from short day hikes to backcountry treks.
Enjoying Big Bend National Park: A Friendly Guide to Adventures for Everyone
Brief description: Enjoying Big Bend National Park contains over 30 activities that includes adventures by foot, vehicle, and family friendly options. This is not solely about the trails.
The Historical Story
The Big Bend: A History of the Last Texas Frontier
Brief description: The Big Bend provides a scholarly historical summary of the park area and includes old photographs, maps, and descriptions of old historic sites.
Big Bend veterans – Are there any other resources that have been beneficial to your enjoyment of the park whether for running/hiking or otherwise?
I need to get my tread down there. So many places to experience and explore…
Be active – Feel the buzz!
David – EnduranceBuzz.com
(Photos: Courtesy of Soul Smiling and Jeremy Chen)
About the author
David Hanenburg is the passionate dirt-lovin' creator of Endurance Buzz and has been playing in the endurance sports world since 2000 after knockin' the dust off of his Trek 950 hardtail thanks to a friend asking to go ride some local dirt. In 2007 he ran his first ultra on the trails and fell in love with the sport and its people. For more information on David's endurance sports journey, check out the About page.
It was a good article. Also some of the pictures linked to in that story’s comments were pretty nice. I am running the 50k – my first ultra there and hopefully I can enjoy the scenery too. Thx for the write up too with the additional links!
Cheers, Harold
Hey Harold – I think the event will be a great way to enjoy the scenery. From my understanding the footing seems really good, so you should actually be able to look around and not take a digger.
Enjoy the journey!
Well Dave…I ran this 50K and took a ‘header’ one time. The scenery is so good…LOL.
Hey Bob – Ouch! Thanks for the wondering eyes caution. But one cannot help but ask…was there any blood?