The Christmas Mountains are a smallish compact range with impressive prominence located way south near the Big Bend National Park, about 80 driving miles from Alpine along highway TX-118, and maybe 60 road miles driving from the National Park's main western entrance. Beth and I were in the Big Bend area - our second visit together - staying at the Terlingua Ranch, which is north of the National Park and about 20-something miles off the main highway via a network of dirt and lesser paved roads. In fact, we blundered (slightly) and just assumed the Terlingua Ranch was located in the town of Terlingua, so we drove there first, only to discover we'd overshot our correct exit by about 25 miles. We finally rolled into the Terlingua Ranch just as dusk was turning into outright darkness for the evening. Fortunately, the proprietors had left our key available for us to get into our cabin, and we settled our bill the next morning. The next morning we relaxed and I made a leisurely walk to the main office to gether information about the area. Terlingua Ranch serves tourists as well as a smattering of locals who bought land in a huge subdivision of plots north of "the Ranch". The main offices also include a simple restaurant and occasional entertainment - things hard to come by in these very remote parts of Texas. It's situated in a valley surrounded by stark desert peaks, and is very lovely. The accommodations are basic but decent.

In regards to Christmas Mountain, I had made zero advance plans for hiking this peak, since I did not know our lodgings would be so close to this range. I had not brought along any maps or anything. But now that we were here and the Christmas Mountains just right there across the valley, I was naturally curious about this range, and whether it would be possible to hike it. So while I visited the offices, I looked over their topographiocal maps of the region (there mainly for the local landowners to actually find their land - one thing I learned is that a lot of people purchase their plots sight unseen off the internet and then come out and have no luck finding it! Some people even advertise, for a fee, their services to help these poor saps find their land.) I also struck up a conversation with the guy in the main office, carefully broaching the subject so as not to play my hand too boldly at the start. It helped to notice that the entire range - 15 square miles or about 9,500 acres - were up for sale by the Texas General Land Office (GLO) for about $450,000. This was a good "in" to bring up the subject. The man himself wouldn't grant me any permissions to enter on the Christmas Mountains land as the Terlingua Ranch does not own it. He didn't know who did, or had a vague idea, or maybe just wasn't telling me much. He was nice though, and did let on that an old mine road does work its way up to the range crest. I, of course, had no clue about the land-ownership status, other than it is probably private, as just about everything in Texas seems to be. As for how to contact the land-owner(s): no idea.

The day had started with a surprise: dense fog! It didn't lift until late morning, and when it did the day revealed itself to be a gorgeous warm, winter Texas desert afternoon: clear and wonderful. I was able to gather some waypoint figures from the maps at the Ranch office. The more-detailed 1:24K quad maps showed all the ridges and things like that, but for some reason, not the old road. On the other hand, the broader 1:100K map showed the old road. There was no way to photocopy the maps, so I took notes on a sheet of paper. This would have to serve as my "map". I drove some roads, and successfully worked my way to the base of the range. The aforementioned mine road is visible as it cuts up the side of the foothills, so I aimed for it. I parked in an open area well below the start of the mine road. Some fire rings and light garbage in the area suggested it is used as an ad-hoc (hunters?) camp now and again. From the truck I walked to the base of the hills. The road was chained shut with a single light-gauge chain. That was it; no contact information, no signs telling me to get lost, nothing. I went in.

The hike went well. Not entirely sure I had the right road, I went quick to be sure. In time it worked up some lower hills, offered some great views of the Chisos Mountains to the south. The road reaches a highpoint about 2.5 miles in, then drops about 200 feet, then regains some of that elevation before ending very near the ridge proper at a small saddle. The summit was just a short quarter-mile walk to the north, mostly over rock and some game paths. The top is marked by a large rock cairn attesting to past visitors. The register had one other name in it from early 2004; I may very well have been the only person to visit the summit for all of 2005. It had taken me 1 hour, 40 minutes to gain the top, covering about 4 miles one way, with 1,800 feet of gain. The views were superb, but I only stayed maybe five minutes. The walk out took one hour, and I was back to our cabin by 3 p.m. The hike - which I had not planned for whatsoever - was an unexpected success!

We spent some more time down in Big Bend National Park, including a great climb up Emory Peak two days later, on the winter solstice. We also retraced our drive up highway FM-170, the Texas River Road, through Presidio and up to Candelaria, staying at the Chinati Hot Springs before heading on home.

Here is some background about the Christmas Mountains that I have collected since our hike:

This link (9.94 MB, very big file) is a story written about the Christmas Mountains, including its history and the new "Christmas Mountains Association" (CMA) that leases and looks over the land these days. From what I can gather, this seems to be a summary of situation: The land was purchased by a land conservancy group (The Mellon Foundation?) in the late 1980s, with intentions on selling it to the National Park Service for inclusion into Big Bend National Park. The BBNP interested, but needs congressional approval to make such a large purchase, not to mention a detailed flora/fauna/etc. survey. Money and other issues get in the way. Land conservancy group unloads to private owners but deed restrictions are so severe that literally there is no legal development of any sort allowed in the Christmas Mountains. The Texas General Land Office (GLO) buys land, again thinking BBNP may be buying it soon for the Park. Again, deal falls through. The GLO still owns land, but allows the CMA to manage it. The CMA is a apparently a loose aggregate of locals living nearby who are willing to cover the lease costs and upkeep. The CMA is a non-profit with virtually no web presence at all. The Christmas Mountains are still for sale but the deed restrictions turn off all buyers. Land will probably (in the very long term) become part of the National Park, but in the meantime it is in a prolonged limbo.

I mention all this because a few months later I got an angry email from the leader of the CMA upset at my climb! The email, which I have kept for all these years, called me every name in the book (with many misspelled) and questioned my honor and decency and so forth. This was the first time I had heard of the CMA in any way, shape or form. The Terlingua Ranch people certainly didn't say anything about them and there were no signs at or near the range attesting to their purview.

Texas law heavily (and I underscore heavily) favors the landowners when it comes to posting land against trespassing. So while it is safe to assume anything not on a highway or in a city is probably private, I certainly did not feel like I was approaching some heavily posted section of land when I came upon the Christmas Mountains. Other than the light-gauge wire spanning the road at the base, I saw nothing else - not a sign or anything. If this was the extent of the CMA's "posting" the land, it is pretty scant. Given the land is for sale and that I'd be on a road anyway and that in anywhere else outside of Texas it would be just fine to hike on such a road, I felt 100% comfortable hiking the road. Just what does the CMA do, I wonder? Judging by their email (I got one other from the treasurer), they certainly don't practice their spelling. The whole thing pissed me off, frankly. Seems the CMA - to me - don't do much at all other than to issue angry emails retroactively. It must be all their budget allows. The irony is that somehow they were alerted to my trip report probably from someone, many months after the fact. They probably would never have known otherwise.

Updates: The situation is very fluid, and I check in on the latest happenings every couple of months (I just Google "Christmas Mountains Texas"). The land just wasn't attracting any buyers, so the GLO agreed to "open" access via a one-mile boundary that the Christmas Mountains tract shares with the National Park. This looks nice on paper, but in reality this common boundary is very remote from any roads and probably not likely to see much visitation at all except by the most hardiest (or insane) of hikers. Also, I noted recently that the Terlingua Lodge is closed, perhaps temporarily. I do not know if that means no access at all, or it just means the accommodations are closed. People still live there, so maybe the closure is temporary. The insinuations seem to be that opening up the Christmas Mountains to hunters might draw some funds (via permits) to the locals. Of course, this is a controversial point since the Big Bend National Park people still maybe might possibly want to consider maybe possibly purchasing the land or not, maybe. There's a lot of rancor in the debate, and I leave it as an exercise to the reader to check out the action on your own time, for some fun, light reading.

If you wish to hike the peak, it may be wise to call the BBNP Rangers and try to glean the latest information on whether they're allowing access from the roads from the northeast (non-park) land. I cannot say for certain what the current status is. In a way, I am glad I went ahead and hiked it, despite the fact this put me in trouble (whatever) with the locals. Waiting around for this to get settled might age a fellow a bit. Me, I'm waiting for the Chinatis to open up.