Entering Big Bend Country

— No matter which entrance you use to get into Big Bend NP, you will be greeted with beautiful landscapes. If you are coming into the park via Marathon on Highway 385, your first visitor center will be at Persimmon Gap. You will get a chance to admire large wide spaces and some mountain range views, such as the Rosillos Mountains and Dagger Mountain. Along that highway, you will pass a couple of must-see locations. The first will be the Dagger Flat Auto Trail, a very interesting seven-mile drive on an improved dirt road that takes you into an area with huge dagger yucca plants. Farther south from that point, you will pass the Fossil Discovery Exhibit, where you can see some of the plants and animals that inhabited the Big Bend area some 130 million years ago of geological time. Continuing south, you will then reach the Panther Junction Visitor Center. Please allow ample time for stops because the scenery will, as always, be breathtaking. After all, you are in Big Bend country.