Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all!

I'm planning a trip to the Big Bend in early June-my goal is to see and photograph a wide variety of herps..Some of you on the forum have a lot of field experience in this area so I was wondering if you'd be willing to point me to a good, centrally located motel-maybe in Alpine? Also, are Texas Small Game licenses available over the net?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me
Brad Chambners
Syracuse, New York

But there are a couple of places to stay in Study Butte and Terlingua that are popular.

One is the Wild Horse Station which is a collection of small cabins in the Christmas Mountains.

Another is the Easter Egg owned by the Chisos Mining Co on FM170 just east of peppers hill. It is small, but it is priced right. (where I stayed a couple of years ago)

I also believe that some people stay north of Study Butte in the Longhorn.

Not many people stay in Alpine, which is about 1 - 1.5 hours from the Bend area, but close to the Davis Mountains.

If you want to visit the Big Bend / River Road area I would just stay down there, but not in Lajitas unless you have $$$$ to burn. It is nice, but pricey for "just a place to sleep out of the heat".

It has been a while since I was out there last, I plan to make it this June for a week and have not made any reservations yet.. So my info may be slightly off, but you should get the idea.

... upon what type and locality of herps you would like to see. i'll be in big bend the first week of june as well. email me at: wismarzx6e@hotmail.com and i can fill you in as i have stayed in several hotels in the area from the last 10 years, take care

One of our favorite spots to stay is in the Gage Hotel in Marathon. Although it admittedly is a little pricey, it is a really nice place to stay. From there you have Black Gap to the south, the Davis Mountains just down 90 to the west, and some good hunting on 90 to the east as far as your gas tank can take you. In one evening a couple of years ago we saw a pictagaster, a celeonops, one arizona elegans, an emoryi, several rhinochielus, lots of hyps, a few atrox, one viridis, a couple of thamnophis, and a bogertophis - all within a forty mile radius of Marathon. That was a great night for herping just a day or two after a lot of rain in the month of June. If you want to save money, your best bet may be to stay in Sanderson, which has great habitat, even right in the town itself. We saw a screamer alterna one night there right in the road within city limits. With nine mile cut to the north, a couple of good cuts to the west and multiple cuts to the east of Sanderson, it is a great locale for herping. Of course there are any number of cheaper places to stay in Del Rio, which is a springboard to many great locales - including 277, Juno road, Langtry and Pandale road. Good luck. We've found seven alterna in about 50 nights of hunting. About one per week, on average, although last June 21st we found three blairs phase within about four hours at the s-curves on Juno road. Interestingly enough, we only saw three herps all night long, but they were all alternas! The lure of the hunt (remember Pavlov's experiments) keeps us going back time and again. There is a mystique surrounding West Texas that is hard to describe, but understood by many who return there year after year. Some have been so captivated by this region, they have bought property in West Texas in order to live right in the middle of some of the best herping to be had anywhere.