The road to Terlingua gets lonelier by the mile — then a ghost town and dark skies reward you

It’s six hours from anywhere

You drive six or seven hours from San Antonio, five and a half from El Paso, and the towns get smaller until they disappear.

Then you hit Terlingua Ranch, 210,000 acres of Chihuahuan Desert spread across southern Brewster County. Big Bend National Park sits to the east.

Big Bend Ranch State Park sits to the west. The county itself covers 6,192 square miles, more land than Delaware and Connecticut put together, with a fraction of the people.

The nearest real town is Alpine, an hour north on Highway 118. What you find out here makes the drive worth every mile.

Mercury miners built a town that vanished

Cinnabar showed up in the 1880s, and miners followed.

By the early 1900s, somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 people lived in the Terlingua mining district, pulling ore out of the ground to make mercury.

Howard E. Perry’s Chisos Mining Company ran the biggest operation, and by 1922 this patch of desert produced about 40 percent of all the mercury mined in the United States.

Then demand collapsed after the 1940s, and the town emptied out.

In the early 1960s, race car legend Carroll Shelby and Dallas attorney Dave Witts bought roughly 200,000 acres around Terlingua and turned it into a land venture that became today’s ranch.

Walk past adobe ruins and Perry’s crumbling mansion

The ghost town sits a short drive south of Terlingua Ranch, and you can explore the whole thing on foot for free.

Adobe and stone buildings from the mining days still stand along the dirt paths, including the ruins of Perry’s mansion on the hill above town.

The old Chisos Mining Company store now runs as the Terlingua Trading Company, part shop and part community hangout. Grab a seat on the front porch.

It works as the town square, and locals and visitors watch the sunset together from those chairs.

A cemetery with 500 graves and handmade crosses

The Terlingua Cemetery dates to around 1902 and sits on the National Register of Historic Places.

More than 500 graves fill the hillside, including miners from the early 1900s and people who died during the 1918 flu outbreak.

You’ll find simple wooden crosses next to handmade markers decorated with bottles, figurines and personal tokens. The cemetery is still active, so the story keeps growing.

Go at sunset, when the light falls across the desert slope and the whole place turns gold.

Candles cover the hillside on Dia de los Muertos

Every Nov. 2, people gather at the cemetery for Terlingua’s annual Dia de los Muertos celebration. Candles go on the graves one by one until the hillside glows after dark.

Altars at the entrance hold flowers, photos and offerings for the dead. You can bring your own flowers or small tokens to place on the communal altars.

As the night goes on, a community bonfire starts up, dinner comes out, and live music fills the Starlight Theatre down the road. The whole desert feels alive.

The Starlight Theatre got its name from a missing roof

Somebody built a movie house in the 1930s for the mining town, and it doubled as a community gathering place. When the mines closed and people left, the roof eventually caved in.

Locals started calling it the Starlight Theatre because the only thing overhead was the night sky. It reopened after a restoration as a restaurant and live music venue.

The menu runs on Texas fare, including the area’s award-winning chili.

Locals and travelers share tables most nights, and the mix gives the room a feel you won’t find in a city.

A chili cookoff that started as a publicity stunt

On Oct. 21, 1967, Carroll Shelby, writer Frank X. Tolbert and chili maker Wick Fowler held the first Terlingua chili cookoff.

The whole thing was a stunt to promote Tolbert’s book and Shelby’s land sales, and they pitted Fowler against New Yorker H. Allen Smith. It ended in a draw after one judge said his taste buds were scorched beyond repair.

Now two competing cookoffs run the first weekend of November, each claiming to be the original. Thousands of people pour into the tiny town for chili, barbecue, live music and dancing.

The Milky Way stretches from one horizon to the other

Terlingua Ranch sits inside the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve, certified in 2022 by DarkSky International.

The reserve spans over 9 million acres across Texas and northern Mexico, the largest certified dark sky reserve on Earth. Out here, the sky scores a Class 1 on the Bortle Scale, the darkest rating possible.

On a clear night, you can see the Milky Way from horizon to horizon without a telescope or binoculars. Residents follow strict lighting rules, and the ranch asks guests to cut their lights between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Float through a canyon with 1,500-foot walls

The Rio Grande runs along the southern edge of the Big Bend region, right on the border between Texas and Mexico. Santa Elena Canyon draws the most paddlers, and for good reason.

Limestone walls rise up to 1,500 feet on both sides of the river, and the water stays calm enough for beginners and families at normal levels, mostly Class I rapids.

You can book a guided day trip by raft, canoe or kayak, depending on water conditions. If a single day isn’t enough, outfitters run multi-day trips lasting up to 10 days deeper into the wilderness.

Drive the steepest paved grade in Texas on FM 170

Farm-to-Market Road 170 runs roughly 50 to 67 miles between Lajitas and Presidio, hugging the Rio Grande the entire way.

The road cuts straight through Big Bend Ranch State Park, the largest state park in Texas at about 311,000 acres.

You’ll climb the Big Hill, the steepest paved grade in the state at 15 percent, with views of the river and Mexico spreading out below.

Pull over at Closed Canyon for a walk through a narrow slot, or stop at the Hoodoos to see the rock formations. Driving the road costs nothing, though park trails require a small fee.

Over 450 bird species call Big Bend home

Big Bend National Park sits about 30 minutes from Terlingua Ranch and covers more than 150 miles of trails. The Lost Mine Trail gives you views of the Chisos Mountains.

The Window Trail leads to a desert pour-off. The Santa Elena Canyon Trail runs 1.5 miles round trip along the canyon rim.

Javelinas, roadrunners, black bears and mountain lions roam the park.

Birders come from all over because Big Bend has recorded more than 450 species, more than any other national park. Rangers host star parties with telescope viewing on select nights.

Fill your tank and bring your own water

Fewer than 100 people live in the Terlingua census area, and services match. Cell coverage drops to spotty or zero across much of the ranch.

The nearest grocery stores sit in Alpine, about an hour north.

You need to arrive with a full gas tank, enough water for your whole stay and whatever supplies you can’t do without. That bare-bones setup is the whole point.

No crowds, no city glow, no schedule. Out here, the day runs on desert time, and you set the pace.

Explore Terlingua Ranch in West Texas

You can reach Terlingua Ranch by heading south on Texas Highway 118, about 80 miles from Alpine in southern Brewster County.

Big Bend National Park sits to the east and Big Bend Ranch State Park to the west, so you have two massive parks right at the doorstep. Fall through spring brings the best weather, while summer heat gets extreme.

If you plan to explore the ranch roads and backcountry, a high-clearance vehicle will save you a lot of trouble. Check the official website for lodging and road conditions before you go.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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