We woke up rather water logged from a second night of thunderstorms in the Davis Mountains and had to pack everything up soggy unfortunately. We were on our way to our campsite in Big Bend Ranch State Park with a stop/check in at Fort Leaton. Big Bend Ranch is a huge, rugged state park with only one paved road that meanders the southern border alongside the Rio Grande. You access the park from either the West side via Fort Leaton or East side via Barton Warnack Visitor Center. Then it’s 50 miles of hills and switchbacks on the River Road that connects you to the 27 miles of gravel roads inside the park. One could spend DAYS just driving to destinations within the 300,000 acre park. Due to our time restrictions and towing a trailer, our plan was to spend the night boondocking at a River Road side campground after we checked in and explored Fort Leaton since it is listed as its own state park as well. That was the plan anyways.

When we arrived to checkin, we were immediately informed that the previous nights of storms had the Rio Grande at a flash flood already and not only was the road closed, they were evacuating riverside campgrounds and the interior campers were cut off until the 4 feet of water over the road receded. Obviously we weren’t going to be driving through or camping that day. The ranger also couldn’t give us a time frame for accessibility because while our area wasn’t forecasted for anymore rain, the mountain range in Mexico was and all would be running off into the river as well.

Our only option was to drive right back up to Marfa, head to Alpine and then drop into Terlingua. We were already booked at a RV park/motel starting the next day in Terlingua and thankfully I was able to call and add the extra night. But, before we embarked on our 4 hour detour, we needed to explore Fort Leaton!

The adobe home constructed in the 1830s was sold to Benjamin Leaton in 1848 who turned it into a fortress for his trading and other less legitimate business operations. After a string of murders, the fort was abandoned in 1926. Eventually the site was donated to the state in 1978 and TPWD started restoring and preserving it as a state park. And they have done some great work!

We spent an hour wandering through the property, ate a picnic lunch and hit the road for Terlingua hopeful the rain would let up.

-Lindsay