From Terlingua west to Presidio, TX 170 passes through the 311,000-acre Big Bend Ranch State Park (1991 established), following in the gorge of the Rio Grande River for the most spectacular river drive between El Paso and Brownsville (see p. 2). Locally known as River Road, its steep grades and sometimes sharply curved alignment allow for varied and distant vistas of the rugged landscape that surrounds this 50-mile scenic drive. Near Lajitas, a 1960s rest area managed by the Texas Department of Transportation includes a cluster of colorful tepees built as a result of the 1965 Highway Beautification Bill championed by Lady Bird Johnson. The highway winds through the dramatic, 6-mile-long Colorado Canyon between low volcanic bluffs that rise to mountains on both the Texas and Chihuahua (Mexico) sides. Because the Chihuahuan bank of the river lies largely in the Parque National Cañón de Santa Elena, there are no infrastructure intrusions to blunt the raw power of the river gorges.