The Secret Petroglyphs of Big Bend

Last year my wife and I booked a raft trip on the Rio Grande River in Big Bend National Park with Far Flung Adventures in Terlingua, TX. Our guide. Whose name I can not remember, was a wealth of information. We told her about searching for petroglyphs in Big Bend and she told us about the “secret” area of Big Bend, a place the locals go. She said it had better and more petroglyphs than the rest of the park.

To get to the secret place, she told us to take Route 118 North out of Big Bend and to look for Indian Head Road. That road is a road you can easily blow right past, so she gave us a landmark – a location called the Big Bend Resort & Adventures. This is a combination of lodge and RV park. If you are coming from the Big Bend area, Indian Head Road is just past Big Bend Resort & Adventures. You will make a right turn onto the road.

Big Bend Resort & Adventures

Drive along the road for a little over a mile. It will wind back to the left and then loop back to the right and end, more or less, in a circular loop. You can, however, drive down further, but we parked up top so we could see our truck when we were returning from our hike.

Parking Area

Walk unto you reach a fence that serves as a marker for the park boundary. There is an opening in the fence that lets you into Big Bend. Once you go past the fence, you’ll see faint trail that goes down a grade. There will a sign after about 200 yards or so about the petroglyphs and the history. Keep the hill to your left, continue roughly east and pay attention to the boulders at base of the hill to find the petroglyphs.

Once you find the first petroglyph, keep exploring on your left. You’ll find more.

I created a video about the petroglyphs. It is below.