Location: Big Bend National Park
State: Texas
Length: 4.8 miles / 7.7 km
Trail Type: Out and back
Elevation Change: 1,171 ft / 357 m
Duration: 3 hours
Difficulty: Steep hill climbs ,moderate
Trail Condition: Clear and well-maintained.
Best Times: early spring, late autumn and winter. (Hottest May and June, thunderstorms until October).
Heat wafts up on a summer day on the Lost Mine Trail in Texas
Trail Information:
At the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert, this remote National Park is named after the bend in the Rio Grande that marks its southern boundary Mexico. Big Bend is not just about arid desert and cactus country, or even the river and its limestone gorges. Rising from the scorching lowlands are the cooler, forested slopes and dramatic canyons of the rugged Chisos Mountains, home to the Park’s finest hiking trails.
From the parking area at Panther Pass, the trail steadily raises through pinyon, juniper and oak forest along the lower slopes of Casa Grande, with its distinctive, castle-like summit.
There are wonderful views down Green Gulch along the way. After 1 mile, you reach the head of Juniper Canyon, where an overlook has an impressive view of the wooded canyon to the south and Pulliam Bluff to the north-west.
The trail now ascends more steeply for another mile, before cresting the ridge between Pine Canyon to the east and Juniper Canyon below to the south-west. The ridge is followed for 0.4 mile to a promontory at 6,850 ft, which has panoramic views all around - some of the best in the Park. It is tempting to linger here for a while to soak in the views, but you will need to descend quickly from this high-point in the event of a thunderstorm.
Rising above the promontory at the trail end is Lost Mine Peak. According to a Spanish legend, on Easter Sunday the rays of the rising sun strike the peak at the exact location of a rich silver mine.
Directions:
Hwy 118 from Alpine to the west entrance, US 385 from Marathon to the north entrance. The Park HQ and main visitor center are at Panther Junction, in the center of the Park, at the intersection of these two roads - 29 miles south of the north entrance and 22 miles east of the west entrance.
