Travel America: Big Bend country: lush it's not, but this rugged West Texas frontier offers dramatic

BROWN, PARCHED, RUGGED, vast, quirky, uncompromising. The Big Bend area of Texas is how I always expected Texas to be. Miles of dusty, over-grazed land, tough weather-beaten ranchers, eccentric towns with character, and enough wide-open space to satisfy even the most claustrophobic.

The first thing you need in this neck of the woods is a car. Distances between places are often long, and you just can't get to some of the most interesting sights without one. But the roads are good and the traffic light, so it's fairly stress-free driving.

We flew into the Midland/Odessa airport, hopped into our rental car, and headed for Fort Stockton. To give you an idea of the sense of space and density in the Big Bend area, Fort Stockton is 32 miles from its nearest neighbor and the area's, largest town, with a whopping 8,500 residents.

A prime example of Texas kitsch is the first thing you'll probably notice when you drive into town. It's "Paisano Pete, World's Largest Roadrunner," an 11-foot-tall, 22-foot-long statue of a roadrunner, complete with yellow toenails.

On the more serious side, Fort Stockton was first a frontier military outpost, established in 1858. The fort complex is open to the public and consists of four original buildings, including, three Officers' Quarters and the Guard House, and two reconstructed barracks.

Twenty-six miles east of town is Ste. Genevieve Vineyards. Not only is this Texas' largest winery, but it is one of the most high-tech in the country. Tours ave offered a couple of times a week.

We spent the night at a ranch-style bed and breakfast south of Fort Stockton. If we hadn't opted for a ranch stay, we'd have bedded down at the Gage Hotel in Marathon. Built by cattle baron Alfred Gage in 1927, the place simply oozes Western atmosphere. The dining room, with its delicious Southwestern fare, attracts folks from miles around.

About 30 miles from Marathon is the town of Alpine. Though it may have only 6,000 residents, including 2,500 Sul Ross State University students, it is the seat of Texas' largest county. Alpine has the best selection of motel rooms and RV hookups for visitors to Big Bend National Park, which is about an hour's drive south. Alpine's Museum of the Big Bend, on the Sul Ross campus, gives a good overview of the area.

Our next adventure was to be an overnight river rafting trip. Far-Flung Adventures in the tiny town of Terlingua, just outside the park, offers guided trips on the Rio Grande River. Water levels were too low for rafting, however, so we would be canoeing instead.

Terlingua consists of a ghost town, with ruined houses, a jail, and cemetery, plus a few thriving businesses. One, the Starlight Theater Restaurant, occupies an old movie house, complete with star-speckled ceiling. For a quick burger or taco, my choice is the Hungry Javelina (named for a nearsighted boar found in the area), just outside town. The food is served from a 1950s-type travel trailer painted in Southwestern shades of turquoise and pink.

Our canoe put-in spot was on the river near Lajitas. While Lajitas proudly touts its Lajitas Boardwalk, a replica of a frontier town, more interesting and authentic is the Lajitas Trading Post. It is said that the likes of Pancho Villa and General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing once hung out there.

We canoed down the Rio Grande, past rocky canyons and high desert landscape. The sun was shining. There was no other river traffic. It was quiet, lovely, idyllic. We camped on a tree-shaded beach at a bend in the river. As the sun set, the rocky mesas turned fiery orange. We gobbled up grilled steaks and fish and slept under the stars.

Big Bend National Park, our next stop, is one of the 10 least visited national parks, which, to my mind, is a real plus. Not only that, but this wilderness area is ruggedly stunning. It contains an entire mountain range, the Chisos, within its boundaries and has more than 1,100 plant types, 430 bird species, and all sorts of wildlife, including deer, jackrabbits, and even an occasional black bear or mountain lion.

The only in-park accommodations are at Chisos Mountains Lodge at Chisos Basin. Numerous trails lead off from this point, including the four-mile roundtrip one to the Window. A narrow slit of a gorge, through which all Basin drainage flows, the Window is dramatic at sunset when the slit turns into a red-hot gash.

From the park we drove to Cibolo Creek Ranch near the ghost town of Shafter. Sprawling over 25,000 acres, the historic ranch includes three 19th century adobe forts that have been expanded and adapted to house visitors.

This is no rough-and-ready ranch experience, however. This is pampered ranching at its best. The individually decorated rooms all have wood-burning kiva-type fireplaces.

Mystery lights, an epic motion picture, and contemporary art are what makes Marfa an eclectic and eccentric little town. Some favor naturalistic explanations for the Mafia lights and some look to the supernatural, but so far no one has successfully explained why strange lights appear some nights in the sky near Marfa.

In 1955 Hollywood invaded Marfa to film Giant, starting Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, and Dennis Hopper. The 1927 El Paisano Hotel housed part of the cast and has glass cases filled with Giant memorabilia.

The Chinati Foundation gets my vote as one of the strangest things to find in a dry little Texas town miles from anywhere. Spread over numerous buildings on a former army post is a museum dedicated to displaying large works of ultra-modern contemporary art, including 100 aluminum boxes by Donald Judd and 23 crushed automobile sculptures by John Chamberlain.

Situated at 5,050 feet, Fort Davis, our last stop in the Big Bend area, is the highest town in Texas. Begun as a fort in 1854, it became a center for ranching. Fort Davis National Historic Site is regarded as one of the most outstanding surviving examples of a Southwestern frontier military post.

Also in and around Fort Davis are the McDonald Observatory, an astronomical research facility that welcomes visitors; Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute. with an arboretum featuring plants and cactuses of the region; and Neill Doll Museum, an 1898 home filled with antique dolls, furniture, and buggies.

As we cruised down the straight, uncrowded roads bound for the Midland/ Odessa airport, I tried to sum up my impressions of the Big Bend area. For sure it's the wide-open spaces--and lush it isn't--but there's something about the harsh, dramatic landscape that sticks with you. And how can you not like an area that has such diverse attractions as the world's largest roadrunner, one of the least visited national parks, and mysterious lights that no one can explain?

For information, contact Big Bend National Park, (915) 477-2251, www.big. bend.national-park.com; and the Texas Tourism Division, (800) 88-88-TEX, www.traveltex.com.