FINAL

West Texas Traditions

COURTNEY BEAUCHAMP, owner of The Tiny Finch, on finding solace and family bonding during annual road trips

here is a curve in the road as

Tyou come over a hill about 2 miles outside of Sanderson where the vista is simply breathtaking. My family and I usually have REM or Tom Petty blaring, the windows down. And although you can’t hear it, I know all four of us exhale when we see it.

After five hours in the car, we are almost there. The air has changed (it’s drier), the colors have shifted (they’re more muted) and there is barely another car in sight. To me, this is heaven on earth.

My husband, John, and I started going out to West Texas when we first began dating almost 20 years ago. I’d never been, but John loved it. We decided we would camp for a few nights before spending New Year’s Eve at the Gage Hotel. Without knowing a thing about where we were headed, I was all in because I wanted to spend time with John. Little did I know I would discover one of the loves of my life—besides my now-husband—Big Bend.

Over the last decade, we have packed up our daughters and dogs and headed out west to celebrate New Year’s in the Texas desert. We have camped, hiked, swum in the hot springs in Big Bend National Park and ventured across the border to explore the most charming little town, Boquillas del Carmen.

I love all of the traditions we’ve created for our girls, now teenagers—from stopping at Rudy’s BBQ in Del Rio to filling up the car in Sanderson to hiking in the national park. There have been phenomenal dinners at The Gage Hotel, strolls through stores in Alpine and days spent venturing over to Marfa to check out art galleries and funky homes.

With all of the unknown in the world these days, West Texas really does offer an escape into some of Mother Nature's beauty—blue skies, calm mornings and an abundance of green cactus.

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