We spent close to a week in Lajitas, Texas –  Big Bend territory.   It was from here that we  journeyed to Big Bend National Park.

The Maverick Ranch RV Resort is part of the larger Lajitas Golf Resort, built to be a destination resort out in the middle of nowhere.  I don’t know how much of that dream was realized but there are a lot of facilities here.    The RV park had a nice pool and clubhouse.  The hotel area has a boardwalk with shops, a spa, and several restaurants.

The golf course, Black Jack’s Crossing, has all kinds of accolades in Texas and beyond.  Golf Magazine declared it The Most Beautiful Golf Course in Texas.   The club house is the old 1899 Lajitas Trading Post.

The adornment on the putting green is the statue “Robert E Lee and the Confederate Soldier.”  Did you ever wonder where those statues that are deemed inappropriate and removed go to die? Or where they go to live on?  One of them came to Lajitas.  This statue was removed by the Dallas City Council in 2017.  It resurfaced at an auction in 2019, was purchased by an anonymous buyer, and donated to Lajitas Golf Resort.   

The golf course is surprisingly green amongst the brown hills.

It goes in and out of the Rio Grande Valley and is very lush considering the environment.

The first time Randy played it was mid afternoon and hot. We were pretty much the only ones out there.

There are a lot of ups and downs on the course which is fun in the golf cart.

We saw abandoned golf balls everywhere and Randy had fun collecting them.   Some were just barely in the rough, or just barely in the pond.   Randy has a ball retriever and it became part of the round to see how many he could easily gather.

He gathered more than five dozen balls with little effort!   We have theories on why people don’t retrieve their ball and just pull out another.   First, it is an expensive course to play so people who can afford to play it can afford to use another ball.   Second,  there are snakes in these hills and who wants to ruin a round with that drama?

Given the heat of the afternoon we saw little wildlife but this road runner played coy with me trying to take his picture.

Randy played again the next morning with new friends in the RV park.  We saw these intriguing foam lines along the course and were told it had something to do with fertilizer application.

Between the golf course and the RV park is the historic Lajitas Cemetery.  Names were primarily hispanic but a few anglos.  There didn’t appear to be any recent burials.

Big Bend National Park is east of Lajitas.  Between the two is the town of Terlingua, an old mining ghost town, remaking itself as the “Chili Cook-off Capital of the World.”

Because my cousins have competed in chili cook-offs around the country, we know a little about the travel and lifestyle of competion. I bought this Ghost Town Chili spice mix by Tom Dozier and made his Championship Chili. It is marketed out of Terlingua and lists his many championships on the lable.   The print is small so I will tell you that the directions call for six tablespoons of spice mix, two pounds of meat, and tomato sauce.  We already knew that competition chili usually has no beans, onions, chopped peppers or other vegetables.  I made the chili mostly following the directions, slightly reducing the hamburger and adding one can of beans.   It was spicy good, but next time I’m adding the onions and peppers.

West of Lajitas is another Big Bend – Big Bend Ranch State Park.  We inadvertently drove through this way from Marfa to Lajitas.  The highway goes through the state park right along the Rio Grande. 

It was quite scenic and we saw the 15% grade signs several times.   Randy and the truck did well going through with the trailer but we drove through another day just to enjoy the views in a more carefree way.

This overlook seemed to be the highest point looking into the valley.

A river runs through it.

Have rock, will climb.

Everything is green near the Rio Grande River.

There are home remnants all through this area, almost all made of rock.

There were three picnic table teepees at this rest area.

We’re not sure how or why this rock formation is here but it is.

Large, no extra large, centipedes are everywhere!  They may be getting into extra small snake category.

There isn’t a Starbucks anywhere in this part of Texas, but there is a Starbucks sign,   I did the research, there are no answers.  It seems to be just another incident of random “art” in the area: a Prada “store” near Marfa, a Target “store” near Marathon and now a Starbucks sign near Redford, Texas.  Wonder what will be next!