Plans to demolish and rebuild the Chisos Mountains Lodge at Big Bend National Park have been put on hold, just weeks before construction was set to begin. The National Park Service (NPS) cited design delays and sharply rising construction costs that created a significant budget shortfall for the project, which was originally approved in 2019.
While the lodge reconstruction is paused, Big Bend will remain fully open to visitors, and previously planned closures of the Chisos Basin will no longer occur. NPS will instead move forward with a new round of bidding focused solely on rehabilitating the Chisos Basin water system. Park officials emphasized that the lodge project has not been canceled permanently and may be revisited once financing and logistics can be resolved.
