In 2021 my wife Jude and I (Erik) purchased 43 acres of Chihuahuan desert property in Terlingua, Texas close to Big Bend National Park. The land is entirely off grid, isolated, and amazing. Our goal is to build our own self sufficient home with solar and rain water catchment so we can move here full time.

Geology


One of the defining features of our land is the 2-3 tiered mesas that bisect the lot. The lower tier is still collapsing and leaves hanging sandstone ledges that can extend several feet while only being 2″ thick. The second interesting feature we found were gypsum crystal seams that criss cross through the entire property. There are multiple sites where the surrounding ground has eroded leaving large areas covered with large exposed crystals. All of this land was submerged and was part of the Western Interior Seaway during the Cretaceous period(100-66 million years ago). We see proof of this from the mosasaur bones, ammonites, and giant clam fossils found throughout the property.

This is one of my favorite ledges and is about 6 feet square! When you are walking on that level of the mesa you can’t really tell where it’s safe to walk on these. The general rule is to stay 5 feet from the edge especially at night.

This 100′ long ridge is all exposed crystals and is a great place to see the sunrise.

Gypsum crystals