Big Bend Ranch State Park (TX) trip

[n118nw]

My wife and I spent the weekend at Big Bend Ranch State Park (next to the National Park). With about 150 lbs of camping equipment in the bed and roof we hit the trails heading to our campsite, Pila De Los Muchachos. I am by no means an experienced off roader (maybe my 6th time) but this truck put with some of my more bad choices, on this trip mostly feeling pressured to get to the campsite before we lost light and “gently” using my side steps as sliders. To be honest it would have been ok if they weren’t there, they only hit because they were. Either way I do either need to find sliders I like or just get a lift.

UNFORTUNATELY like in some of the videos I’ve seen about Big Bend, many of the trails are not well maintained…. Thorny brush grows over the edges and my paint did take a bit of damage… probably most can be polished out but it can be repaired, I’m not too upset about it but I wonder if clear vinyl would have been able to prevent it.

All in all this “Epic” trail (Javelin Rd and Mandrake Falls) wasn’t too bad for a TRD OR on 33’s and stock suspension. Sometimes I needed 4LO, played with crawl control, but didn’t even touch MTS (I forgot I had it) or even use the rear locker. I definitely need to learn though when OnX says it will take you 30 minutes go to 8 miles it really means 3 hours, but when you are in Big Bend, the time and drive is well worth the wait as you are rewarded with breathtaking views and if you’re there at night, exponentially more stars than you typically see from any city.

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[bsquaredMTB]

I had the same experience with those predator steps. They are better off not there for sure! I went with the Cali-raised step sliders but there are tons of options out there. For what it's worth, I took a bit of a hit on MPGs but nothing that made me regret getting them.

 

[tacorancher]

My wife and I spent the weekend at Big Bend Ranch State Park (next to the National Park). With about 150 lbs of camping equipment in the bed and roof we hit the trails heading to our campsite, Pila De Los Muchachos. I am by no means an experienced off roader (maybe my 6th time) but this truck put with some of my more bad choices, on this trip mostly feeling pressured to get to the campsite before we lost light and “gently” using my side steps as sliders. To be honest it would have been ok if they weren’t there, they only hit because they were. Either way I do either need to find sliders I like or just get a lift.

UNFORTUNATELY like in some of the videos I’ve seen about Big Bend, many of the trails are not well maintained…. Thorny brush grows over the edges and my paint did take a bit of damage… probably most can be polished out but it can be repaired, I’m not too upset about it but I wonder if clear vinyl would have been able to prevent it.

All in all this “Epic” trail (Javelin Rd and Mandrake Falls) wasn’t too bad for a TRD OR on 33’s and stock suspension. Sometimes I needed 4LO, played with crawl control, but didn’t even touch MTS (I forgot I had it) or even use the rear locker. I definitely need to learn though when OnX says it will take you 30 minutes go to 8 miles it really means 3 hours, but when you are in Big Bend, the time and drive is well worth the wait as you are rewarded with breathtaking views and if you’re there at night, exponentially more stars than you typically see from any city.

Send it bro. Pin stripes be damned.

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