Weekend Getaway at Big Bend National Park During Covid-19

We made a weekend trip to Terlingua, TX to experience Big Bend National Park and have a unique getaway in a yurt out in the desert. Our accommodations were with The Local Chapter and if you are interested in this amazing experience, you can book below!

*Click the name or picture of the yurt to book it. If you click the button it’ll do just what it says, show you more stays!

I did what I do best when planning this trip, researched all the details to see what unique activities I could find to do that didn’t include the obvious but still gave us a chance to experience the highlights of Big Bend as well.

Here is what I had planned:

  • Hike to Cat Tail Falls - a lesser talked about waterfall in the area. If you search “hike to Cat Tail Falls, Big Bend” on Youtube you’ll see videos on how to get here.

  • Hike the Santa Elena Canyon

  • Canoe ride on the Rio Grande through the Santa Elena Canyon

  • Take a dip in the Big Bend Hot Springs (aka Boquillas Hot Springs or Landford Hot Springs).

  • Hike to the famous Balance Rock

  • Walk/boat ride across the border to eat lunch and drink in Boquillas, Mexico (passport required)

As time permitted we would add in some other activities but these were the must do’s of the trip for me in the three days we had. I suffer from fibromyalgia (supposedly) so the level of fatigue I experience randomly makes planning the more strenuous activities I once did much harder. I have to play it by ear.

There’s so much more to do in Big Bend, especially if you love hiking so don’t consider this the end all be all of activities. I unfortunately didn’t know that we couldn’t do any of these things until we got there. I missed that info on the website even though I looked before we went. Obviously not hard enough. Check their site before you go to see what’s open.

So we enjoyed our time at the yurt, which I could’ve easily stayed at another day or more, took lots of photos, got some great drone footage and found a few more wonders out in West Texas on our way home.

I’d preplanned for us to make some stops as we headed back to the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex and the first stop was the now infamous, thanks to Beyonce’s visit back in 2013, Prada Marfa store. I’ve wanted to visit this “store” ever since I saw her pictures on Tumblr. Talk about a real day one fan, did you know she had a Tumblr page?

Prada Marfa Store
Beyonce at Prada Marfa

So I set out to take the exact same photo she did when she visited so I could post it on my instagram page on her birthday. Sadly she didn’t see it (or publicly recognize that she saw it, always have hope lol) so I didn’t get reposted or a shout out from the queen for my Beyonce stan photo wishing her a happy birthday, but I still loved it and got some great responses on how to get here.

So, the store is called “Prada Marfa” which would make you think it’s in Marfa, Texas but it’s actually located in Valentine, Texas, further west. After driving through the small town of Marfa, you go about fifteen more minutes or so and hit Valentine. You can’t miss the store, unless you’re not looking, it’s literally right off the freeway. It’s such a random spot but you can read some fun facts I found out about it on my Instagram post here. There’s also some footage of it in my video below.

After we snapped our photos for Insta, we headed back east so I could see the Tiny Target in Marathon, TX. It’s right off the highway also (same road highway 90) and it comes up quick if you aren’t paying attention. The drive from Valentine was about 40 minutes.

Tiny Target Marathon TX

There was a couple there painting over the vandalism on the inside where people had tagged it with spray paint when we arrived. I thought it was so cool that people who had no reason to do so, took the time out of their schedule to keep this place looking nice.

When we got done snapping it up, we headed for Monahons to see the sand hills. I’ve lived in Texas for over 20 years and would’ve never thought there was an area full of sand dunes as far as I could see. It felt like we were in another country. The Monahons Sand Hills are located in Monahans, TX. There are signs to lead you here when you exit the freeway.

It’s advised that you reserve your ticket online because they allow a limited amount of visitors at once. We went on one of those days but I assume because of Covid there was no one there. We only saw two people who were leaving when we got there so we had the hills to ourselves for our photos and drone shots. You can see the drone view in my video as well or here on my instagram page. The IG version is better in my opinion because it has Tony Braxton music playing with it.

Monahan Sand Hills

And that’s it! We got started on the remaining five hour drive home to DFW after that. If you ever decide to visit any of these places and need help finding anything please don’t hesitate to email me or leave a comment below. I’ll be sure to get back with you. Enjoy the video!

Thanks for reading and watching!!

~xoxo

Candace Blair

I’ve been traveling for over five years and I’m just starting to write about my trips in detail so bare with me as I get this page together. I have a lot of remembering to do lol!! Feel free to see pictures over the years on IG in the meantime here.