Big Bend Backpack (3 nights) - Now at Christmas

Note the second date change: I have additional travel coming up the third week of November and can't be gone that much. So I was able to change the backcountry site to the night of Dec. 23, and the car camp site to the night of Dec. 20. The two nights in between don't require a reservation. 

I have two spots open for a backpack in Big Bend National Park. Big Bend is way too hot in the summer, and it's a popular NP with all the downsides - no "free" camping in the Chisos Mountains, reserved campsites only. My reserved campsite in the Chisos Mountains is for 3 people, hence I have only 2 spots open. 

We will do the Outer Mountain Loop (ca. 30+ miles). I have a campsite reserved in the park for the night of the departure day. The plan is to drive to BB, pre-stash water at the park's specified locations, and camp in the park campground. The first day we will traverse the Chisos mountains and drop down to the Outer Mountain loop  for our first camp (we may carry water or pre-stash). The second day we will be in low country, following the Outer Mountain loop. For our second camp, we will use our pre-stashed water.  The third day we will spend very close to the rim in the reserved campsite in the Chisos Mountains. We will need to stash sufficient water at the second camp to have enough for the next day, the camp, and the hike out. We will hike back to our starting point and begin the drive home. That last night we will get an early start to push home that same night. To summarize: drive on Friday, begin to hike on Saturday, end the hike and drive home on Tuesday, which is Christmas Eve.  

I have not been there so this is somewhat exploratory but I believe it's all on trails so route finding shouldn't be too hard. Note that the days in late November will be quite short, so we need to make the best of our daylight hours. Not sure how cold it will get there at night. We'll figure that out as we get closer.