After you visit the El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens we hope that you and your family will want to continue your adventure by visiting parks and other natural areas to further your connection with the natural world. Meet our guest blogger Shannon King. After traveling and horseback riding most of Texas, Shannon King decided to make the Big Bend region her home.  Now an empty nester, Shannon continues to ride and travel with a focus on preserving the local natural beauty, including Big Bend’s wild burros.  Shannon’s hope is to inspire other women to have the confidence to pursue their dreams and live their best life! You can read more of Shannon’s experiences on her public FaceBook page at Confessions of a Saddle Tramp.

Big Bend Ranch State Park

I have changed my mind.  Riding along Fresno Creek from the West Contrabando trailhead the mountains in Mexico look like shades of velvet.  And now after seven miles roundtrip, the Fresno Divide trail in Big Bend Ranch is my favorite state park trail ridden.  

Big Bend Ranch State Park is the largest Texas State Park with just over 300,000 acres, 238 miles of multi-use trails, and 4 main camping/staging areas for horses (if sleeping backcountry is not for you).  But in many ways, this is not a “park.”   This is the real deal… nature at her most honest and authentic.  Here, you must think about your entry and your exit – what will hurt you and what could kill you.  What you are equipped for… and what you’re not.  Nature has no expectations; she takes you either way.

The trail is empty today, no sign of life in sight (and sightlines run for miles).  What horse is willing to step out into this uninhabited vastness, this “El Despoblado?”  

He is… and this is how I know he trusts me.   Tempting fate, on our return I drop the stirrups… perfecting my balance I decide. My view wanders into Mexico and there is something spectacular about being horseback looking into another country, as if you could touch it – it sees you and defines you.    

As we work back toward “camp” we pass through several small draws.  Dex eases his way down each and trots up the other side, I lean counter to his movement.  And I wonder… who follows who here?  I feel at one with my horse.

This what it is to live.

Photos by Shannon King