Old Ore Road

This is a fun and scenic trail to run while in the Big Bend National Park. I recommend you run it from north to south, as the views of the Chisos Mountain Basin and even the green of the Rio Grande River valley are visible as you run the middle and southern end of the trail. The northern portion of the trail has the most washed-out areas and rocks. However, the Rocky Ledge Hill at waypoint 14 was our favorite part due to the scenery. If you start from the northern end you may want to go through the Dagger Flat Auto Trail before starting this trail, especially if the Giant Dagger Yuccas are blooming. Be sure not to miss the short hike (just under 1 mile round trip on easy terrain) to Ernst Tinaja at waypoint 16. Since it is so dry at Big Bend right now, this trail ran easier than a rating of 4. We aired down and ran with the sway bar disconnected, but never needed 4-low. For planning purposes, it took us (stock Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon on 33" tires) 3 hours and 45 minutes to run the trail, including time to air down and air back up, but not counting pictures/hiking/lunch. It was a great 1/2 day of desert wheeling!

The rating is spot on IMO. Was fun and interesting drive. I feel like the duration of time is a little off from what is posted. It took us about 5-1/2 hours to finish it, maybe we're just slow lol.

A very scenic trail but not technical (guy that flipped his unimog on it might disagree with me). A very pleasant drive. Can be combined with Dagger Flats road at the north end.

We drove this trail on May 17, 2014, in our Jeep Wrangler 4X4 and it took hours to complete but I would rate it easy. We stopped a lot to take pictures and look around.