Sunday Sept. 20 Chisos Basin Lodge to Van Horn (234 miles)
Map Day 4 Chisos Basin Lodge to Van Horn
Today is day 4 of our Big Bend and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks motorcycle ride. Come follow along and enjoy the scenery and ride.
cabin we stayed at in Chisos Basin Lodge in Big Bend National Park
The window at Chisos Basin
We had breakfast, before heading out back down the mountain, at the Lodge Restaurant. Breakfast was good as was all the food we have eaten at the Lodge over the years. Then it was on to Van Horn via Study Butte, Terlingua, Lajitas, Presidio and Marfa. Highway 170 from Study Butte to Presidio has always been regarded as one of the top ten best roads to ride in Texas, and today we were not disappointed. Though we have ridden this road before I still anticipated riding it again. It is a nice motorcycle road because of the scenery and all the ups and downs and curves.
Leaving Chisos Basin early morning
Old movies set on Rio Grande
Along the way we stopped to see the Contrabando movie set where several western movies were filmed. Last year in September the Rio Grande flooded and the flood had ruined a lot of the set but it was still a nice stop.
The Wild Hogs
Ft. Leaton
Next stop was Ft. Leaton, which was actually a trading post. There wasn’t much as far as exhibits so we did a lot of guessing about what parts of the fort were. It was still interesting though.
El Patio Restaurant in Presidio
We ate lunch at the El Patio Mexican Restaurant in Presidio. We ate there 2 years ago and the food was great but of course you would expect it to be great being a border town. We were not disappointed this time either.
From Presidio it was on to Marfa up Hwy.67. We gassed up in Marfa and took Hwy 90 to Van Horn. We have never traveled that hwy to Van Horn before. It was basically flat and for the most part straight. You could see hills and mountains in the distance but it was just good ranch land as far as you could see.
Van Horn today is mostly, from what we have seen of it, a good stopping point along I-10. It has about 15 motels and several gas stations. There we several things to see in Van Horn but we didn’t get there early enough to do any of those things.
Van Horn’s motto is “Van Horn is so healthy they had to shoot someone to start a cemetery.” The man who said that was shot and killed not long afterward. True
story…
Tomorrow we head to Lamesa, Texas via Carlsbad National Park. Come ride along and share the fun with us.
Below are links to the other days of this ride.
- Big Bend and Carlsbad National Parks Motorcycle Ride
- Day 1 Thursday Sept. 17 Georgetown to Junction (271 miles)
- Day 2 Friday Sept. 18 Junction to Marathon (258 miles)
- Day 3 Saturday Sept. 19 Marathon to Chisos Basin Lodge (66 miles)
- Day 5 Monday Sept. 21 Van Horn to Lamesa (259 miles)
- Day 6 Tuesday Sept. 22 Lamesa to San Angelo (231 miles)
- Day 7 Wednesday Sept. 23 San Angelo to Georgetown (199 miles)
If you are thinking about riding to the Big Bend area, checkout the links below. The links have valuable information on the Big Bend Area of Texas and tips we have learned about long motorcycle rides over the years.
If you enjoyed reading about this motorcycle ride to Big Bend National Park you may like our other motorcycle rides there too.
- Our first motorcycle ride to Big Bend National Park
- Spring motorcycle ride to Big Bend National Park April 2007
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Have Goldwing Will Travel… I hope we see you down the road somewhere. Ride safe…