Terlingua – The majesty and beauty of Big Bend is truly hard to behold. Covering over 800,000 acres and an elevation of over 6,000 feet, the features of this fine place are far and wide. Hiking is how most folks see the sights in the national park, so if you want a bit more adventure you’ll have to head a wee bit west in Terlingua to take a ride at Far Flung Outdoor Center.
“Well the people ask my why we moved out here,” Greg Henington said. “It’s like well the car broke down, we’re still waiting for parts to get delivered.”
Greg Henington and Mark Evans got this business venture dedicated to adventure started back in the mid 70’s.
“Well, we knew folks wanted to see the Big Bend and we wanted to provide a way to do that,” Greg said.
They did just that…with four wheelers.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve enjoyed sitting on mechanical machine and riding it out to some country that’s pretty spectacular,” Greg said.
We suited up to the sights with our tour guy Randy Carnes.
“I first came here in 1972 and fell in love it,” Randy said.
Randy took us to the hot spots accessible by ATV in the area, and if you’ve never ridden around one a 4 wheeler before, it is awesome.
“We require our guides to have a real good knowledge of the area,” Greg said. “It’s not just a ride around on the ATV. It’s all about sort of teaching folks about, this is our backyard, so we want people to respect our backyard and understand it and learn a little bit about it and have some fun in it.”
Our next stop, Indian Head mountain.
“Between 20 and 40 million years ago this whole region became volcanic,” Randy said. “Some of these mountains were actual volcanoes, other were volcanic intrusions. As this magma came to the surface it cooled into rocks and it’s very unstable.”
If you’re up for a ride through the scenery of West Texas that provides a good look at the beauty of the Big Bend, finding your way to Far Flung in Terlingua is a fine stop on The Texas Bucket List.
“It looks sort of like a barren, nothing’s out here, you know, wasteland,” Greg said. “Well, when you really start getting into the backcountry and look around, there’s just some amazing plants and geology, animals, insects, all kinds of things. I think people are sort of like surprised sometimes that there’s this much beauty out here when you start really looking. Right up there with the Alamo in my opinion. It’s one of our big treasures here in Texas.”