SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND:

Elephant Tusk Trail is one of the least utilized designated paths in the Big Bend National Park system, and this lack of use shows in the dilapidated condition it is found in these days.

Even some of the cairns are beginning to topple and go to waste, or incorrect ones have been erected by the well meaning but poorly knowledgeable. Sometimes the trail just flat disappears for a hundred yards and better, and unless you have been there before one has to be handy with a map and compass.

As you drop off the lower slopes of the Chisos proper and approach Elephant Tusk Peak, the trail becomes even rougher. There are steep arroyo banks, rock slides and dry pour offs to be negotiated, some twelve feet high or better.

Decades ago I was with a party of military personnel who, by necessity, maneuvered through here without so much as the faintest slice of moonlight to guide by. That trip was a memorable one, and not for the weak of heart or spirit. Furthermore, we were each carrying about fifty pounds of gear on our backs.

Yet with all the sweat, tired muscles, constant pounding on the feet and having to keep both eyes open at all times, Elephant Tusk Trail is the reigning diamond in the rough for this particular park trail system. Turning off the Dodson at nearly five thousand feet in elevation, by the time the path ends at Black Gap Road you have descended some twenty-five hundred feet into the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert.

This photograph illustrates only one of a thousand scenes worth taking the time to stop and enjoy. Snapped not too far off from the Dodson, much of the park as well as miles upon miles of Mexico spreads out before you. The resulting panoramic vista is a kingly feast for the eyes as well as the other senses.

From here you can see the south rim of the Chisos, Tortuga Mountain, Chilicotal Mountain, Talley Mountain, Elephant Tusk Peak (once known as Indianola Peak), Backbone Ridge, the Rio Grande River, the Sierra del Carmen, Borrego Peak, the Fronteriza and the locations of springs, old mines, camps, abandoned communities and a hundred other points of interest scattered about.

It is all there waiting for you. The special kind of lonesome that makes a man believe it could be two hundred years ago or two thousand, if only for a moment.

Just remember what it took to get here, and the difficult miles upon miles to find any sort of civilization or outside help. This country does not suffer fools or the unprepared gladly, and possesses the lightning fast ability to turn on you like a maddened rattlesnake.

With about the likewise result.

God bless to all,
Ben

Ben H. English
Alpine, Texas
USMC: 1976-1983
THP: 1986-2008
HS Teacher: 2008-2010
Author 2017-Present

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