Summary:
Casa Tranquilla Unwind and relax at this scenic solar and wind powered home on Terlingua Ranch.
• Solar & Wind Powered Vacation Rental
• Open Kitchen, Dining, Living Room
• Secluded Location on 20 Acres
• Mountain Views & Covered Parking
The Space:
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES. PLEASE READ BEFORE BOOKING:
SOLAR-POWERED HOME:
-No electronic devices other than those provided and chargers for phones and consumer electronics.
-Absolutely no electric device with heating elements of any type.
-If you rely on medically necessary electronics, we would be happy to recommend a different property.
COOLED BY EVAPORATIVE COOLER: Evaporative coolers use less electricity but cool differently than air conditioners. If you prefer temps of low 70s or lower, we would be happy to recommend a different property.
Casa Tranquila, is a lovely and secluded home on twenty private acres of Terlingua Ranch. It is eco-friendly, with solar and wind power and rainwater catchment. Nestled in the saddle to two hills, the home has fantastic mountain views and lots of breezes. It’s a wonderful place to enjoy sunrises, sunsets, dark night skies, or a modern campfire at the propane fire pit.
This well-appointed two-bedroom home with a sleeping loft sleeps four to six. We recommend it for four or fewer. The house was custom built by the prior owners. The current owners enjoy it as their personal getaway and are proud to share it with others. After staying here once, you will want to return again and again.
The kitchen, dining room, and living room are open and spacious, with vaulted ceilings, lots of natural light, and windows for enjoying the views. The kitchen is fully equipped and stocked with all the cookware and dishes for enjoying meals together. The living room is designed for relaxing together, with comfortable seating, room to relax, charming décor, and a television with Dish Network and access to your Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services.
The bedrooms and sleeping loft will sleep four to six. Both downstairs bedrooms have a queen-sized bed. The sleeping loft has a full bed and two twin beds. The sleeping loft has a low ceiling and is ideal for children. However, we recommend that it not be used during the summer months due to heat rising into the loft area.
Outside of the house, there are shaded porches, stone patios, outdoor seating, a propane fire pit, charcoal grill, covered parking, and twenty acres of private Chihuahua desert habitat to hike and explore.
Located just 30 to 45 minutes from Big Bend National Park, Terlingua, the Rio Grande, and Big Bend Ranch State Park. You will have easy access to enjoy all the natural wonders and outdoor recreation opportunities the Big Bend. Take a scenic drive, hike the trails, raft the river, go for a horseback ride, enjoy a jeep tour, go for a ride on a mountain bike, watch the wildlife, view the star-filled night skies. The social scene is almost as dynamic as the landscape. Terlingua, the Terlingua Ghost Town, Lajitas, and Terlingua Ranch offer an assortment of dining, art, and music venues where you can eat, drink, and be merry. Or, just relax and unwind in the comfort of Casa del Oso.
The Neighborhood:
TERLINGUA RANCH: Located between Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park and including much of the town of Terlingua, Terlingua Ranch is a private subdivision of over 190,000 acres, divided into 9,500 tracts owned by about 5,000 individuals and crisscrossed by 1,100 miles of dirt and rock roads. Tracts range from five acres to several hundred acres. It is some of the most rugged and scenic land in Texas.
Back in the 1960’s, the Ghost Town and much of what later became “Terlingua Ranch” was owned by racing legend and car designer extraordinaire, Carol Shelby and some of his friends. The decided to promote the area by holding a chili cook-off in the then abandoned Ghost Town. That little stunt of a cook-off grew into CASI (Chili Appreciation Society International) which now hosts nearly 500 chili cook-offs around the nation and internationally, all leading up the championship cook-off every year in Terlingua. Shelby and friends later subdivided the Ranch and started selling it off to hunters and rugged naturalists. Over the decades, the area was reborn and an eclectic community of nature lovers, artists, musicians, adventurers, and folks just wanting to escape from “civilization” has grown and started to resettle this rough country.
People have come and gone. New buildings have risen while others have fallen, Dreams have been realized and others crushed. Through it all, the land remains. The harsh desert and vast openness encourages positive development and slowly swallows up and recovers from past abuses. The old cinnabar mine sites and ranching outposts persist as relics and ghost towns, some redeveloped, some carefully preserved, and others dissolving back into the desert. Abandoned dreams eventually become points of interests for those of us that stumble upon them decades later. Terlingua Ranch is a bizarre mix of old and new, good and bad, growth and decline, all completely unregulated. Modern homes with high values and stunning designs stand beside dilapidated do-it-yourself mistakes and abandoned ruins of the 1800’s and early 1900’s.
The landscape is even more varied than the people and the structures. Rugged mountains, deep canyons, wild arroyos, dry and wet creeks, peaceful valleys, breathtaking badlands, moonscape like mud flats, the remains of ancient volcanoes, and fossilized ancient seabeds. All of it nurturing a vast array of plant life and wildlife. Around every corner and over every hill lies new and unexpected surprises.
The Ranch is now home to a few hundred hardy souls. It is also dotted with a diverse array of vacation rental lodging options and campsites. Like the diverse land, they range in quality, style, value, and price. A few are amazing dream destinations. Some are good places to sleep. Others are the stuff of nightmares. (We don’t manage any in the nightmare category.)
Big Bend Vacation Rentals started out in 2007 and initially managed three of the first four vacation rentals in the Terlingua and Terlingua Ranch area. We now manage dozens out of a couple of hundred options. We represent dozens of property owners and have hosted tens of thousands of guests. You can trust us as managers, and you can rely on the properties that we manage. We have become very selective about the properties and the property owners that we add to our portfolio. Visit our website at www.BigBendVacations.com.
Interaction with Guests:
We manage several properties and live few miles away. We are available by phone, text, email, or messages through Airbnb. We are typically only on site for cleaning or maintenance issues.
