Skip to content

Cookies and browser storage

Only the session cookie is necessary. With your consent we remember display settings and show YouTube videos directly. No ads, no tracking; you can change this any time in the footer. Privacy · Settings

Texas-Urlaub.de
DE Sign in Start for free
Sample routes · Texas

West Texas & Big Bend: 8 days of desert and starry skies

El Paso → Seminole Canyon · 8 Days

Plan your own route Print Download Excel

Wide, empty Texas: from El Paso to the Guadalupe Mountains with the state's highest peak and a detour to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Via Marfa with its art scene and the McDonald Observatory with star parties into Big Bend National Park – the Chisos Mountains, Santa Elena Canyon and the ghost town of Terlingua.

Long stretches without fuel: fill up before every leg and carry water. Best from February to April and in autumn.

A sample route to look at. If you copy it, your own copy lands in your plans – there you can change days, stops and order.

Stops
13
Driving
1666 km
Drive time
28 h 27 min
Car Balanced

1 Day 1

66 km · 57 min 6 h 57 min on the road
  1. 09:00
    El Paso Start
  2. 09:00
    Franklin Mountains State Park
    Daylight
    Time at stop 3 h
  3. 12:00
    Car · 66 km · 57 min
  4. 12:57
    Hueco Tanks State Park
    Daylight
    Time at stop 3 h

2 Day 2

146 km · 3 h 9 min 6 h 9 min on the road
  1. 05:51
    Car · 146 km · 3 h 9 min
  2. 09:00
    Guadalupe-Mountains-Nationalpark

    Foto: Leaflet, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

    Desert mountains with dramatic rock formations and deep canyons, surrounded by diverse flora and fauna of the Chihuahuan Desert. Written by Claude from Wikidata facts

    Daylight
    Time at stop 3 h

3 Day 3

103 km · 2 h 50 min 5 h 50 min on the road
  1. 06:10
    Car · 103 km · 2 h 50 min
  2. 09:00
    Carlsbad-Caverns-Nationalpark

    Foto: Eric Guinther, User:Marshman, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

    Vast underground chambers with dramatic stalactite formations wind through the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico. Written by Claude from Wikidata facts

    Daylight
    Time at stop 3 h

4 Day 4

349 km · 4 h 28 min 7 h 13 min on the road
  1. 05:13
    Car · 289 km · 3 h 47 min
  2. 09:00
    Chinati Foundation

    Foto: Jgc3, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

    Former military buildings have housed large-scale minimalist art installations since 1986. Written by Claude from Wikidata facts

    Daylight
    Time at stop 2 h
  3. 11:00
    Car · 60 km · 41 min
  4. 11:41
    Prada Marfa
    Daylight
    Time at stop 45 min

5 Day 5

131 km · 2 h 1 min 4 h 46 min on the road
  1. 07:23
    Car · 109 km · 1 h 37 min
  2. 09:00
    McDonald-Observatorium
    Daylight
    Time at stop 2 h
  3. 11:00
    Car · 22 km · 24 min
  4. 11:24
    Fort Davis National Historic Site
    Daylight
    Time at stop 45 min

6 Day 6

227 km · 4 h 3 min 7 h 3 min on the road
  1. 04:57
    Car · 227 km · 4 h 3 min
  2. 09:00
    Big-Bend-Nationalpark

    Foto: TripOfALifestyle.com, CC BY 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

    Daylight
    Time at stop 3 h

7 Day 7

110 km · 3 h 23 min 7 h 53 min on the road
  1. 06:33
    Car · 74 km · 2 h 27 min
  2. 09:00
    Santa Elena Canyon

    Sheer limestone walls rise above the Rio Grande, carved by the river along the border between Texas and Mexico. Written by Claude from Wikidata facts

    Daylight
    Time at stop 3 h
  3. 12:00
    Car · 36 km · 56 min
  4. 12:56
    Terlingua
    Daylight
    Time at stop 1 h 30 min

8 Day 8

535 km · 7 h 35 min 13 h 35 min on the road
  1. 06:55
    Car · 103 km · 2 h 5 min
  2. 09:00
    Big Bend Ranch State Park
    Daylight
    Time at stop 3 h
  3. 12:22
    Car · 432 km · 5 h 30 min
  4. 17:52
    Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site
    Daylight
    Time at stop 3 h
  5. 20:52
    Car · 0 km · 1 min
  6. 20:53
    Seminole Canyon Destination

Settings

Decide here what outlasts your browser session and whether third-party content is loaded. Changes apply immediately.

Necessary

always on

The site does not work without these: signing in, protection against forged forms and remembering this choice. Always active.

Show 3 entries
  • PHPSESSID (Cookie)
    Session: sign-in, language, security token for forms · until the browser closes or you sign out
  • tp_einwilligung (Cookie)
    your choice in this window · 12 months
  • tp-modeklick (Session storage)
    confirmation after a map reloads (“saved”) · until the tab closes

Preferences

The site remembers display settings in your browser. They never leave your device. Without consent every setting only lasts until you leave the page.

Show 6 entries
  • pt-theme (Browser storage)
    Light or dark · until you delete it or withdraw consent
  • tp-rail-zu (Browser storage)
    Sidebar collapsed · until you delete it or withdraw consent
  • tp-reisen-sort, tp-sw-ansicht, tp-karte-folgt (Browser storage)
    Trip sorting, map view in “Sights”, whether the map follows while reading a trip · until you delete it or withdraw consent
  • pt-colorby, pt-altscale, pt-speedscale2, pt-profachse, pt-fly-tempo (Browser storage)
    Route colouring, elevation and speed profile, fly-through speed · until you delete it or withdraw consent
  • tp-reisevorbereitung (Browser storage)
    Ticks in the “trip checklist” · until you delete it or withdraw consent
  • tp-karte-ebene (Browser storage)
    Chosen map layer (standard, terrain, cycling) · until you delete it or withdraw consent

External videos

Trips can contain YouTube videos. We embed them in privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com); when played, YouTube (Google) may still store data on your device and receive your IP address. Without consent you see a placeholder and can load each video individually.

Show 1 entry
  • YouTube (Google Ireland Ltd.) (embedded player)
    Play videos in trips · as set by YouTube

Statistics & marketing

not used

Not used. We do not measure visits with third-party services, show no ads and do not track you across other sites.