Sight · Big Bend National Park
Folded orange limestone frames a fossil-rich desert pool.
Overview
Ernst Tinaja is a 13-foot natural rock pool in a small limestone canyon, about half a mile from a trailhead on Old Ore Road. The pool and the swirling canyon walls make this a memorable geology stop if you are already exploring Big Bend’s backcountry. Plan on about one mile round trip and an hour on foot. The path is mostly flat, but deep sand and stretches of bedrock slow the walk.
Parkwolf’s verdictIs the rough-road detour worth it?Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Big Bend Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Big Bend National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Big Bend audio tourRecorded for this place
Ernst Tinaja via Old Ore Road“You're approaching Old Ore Road, the rough-road access to Ernst Tinaja's pool and folded orange limestone.”
Plays as you drive up to Ernst Tinaja in the Parkwolf Big Bend Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Orange and pale bands twist through the narrow canyon, and giant oyster fossils are set in the limestone. Take time to follow the bends in the rock rather than looking only at the pool. For a photo, keep part of the folded canyon wall around the water; a tight shot of the pool alone misses the feature that makes this place distinctive.
“Tinaja” is Spanish for a large earthen jar; in Big Bend the word describes natural waterholes formed by erosion. This pool is cut into the creekbed, with steep, smooth sides. Animals drawn to the water can slip in and be unable to climb back out. The best view requires scrambling over smooth limestone boulders and ledges, so take care near the edge and stop where the footing feels secure.
Old Ore Road follows an older mule-and-pack-train route that carried ore from Mexican mines to the railroad at Marathon in the early 1900s. Ernst Tinaja is about five miles from the road’s southern end near Rio Grande Village, deep in the remote part of the park.
When Old Ore Road is open, reaching the trailhead takes a high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle with sturdy tires; it sits about five miles from the road’s southern end. The road is very rough, so the short walk comes after a serious backcountry drive.
Wildlife
377 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
329 sightingsCollared PeccaryMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
500 sightingsWhite-tailed DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
985 sightingsRoadrunnerMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
228 sightingsRavenMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
264 sightingsTurkey VultureMost seen around noonSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Big Bend. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Parkwolf’s Big Bend ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
