After our huge hike the previous day we decided to take it easy. We planned on driving
to the western portion of the park down on the desert floor. We had a few things in
mind, all close together by Big Bend standards. Actually we found that we felt a
little better after walking a bit, better than if we had just sat around all day.
Well before you get to the trailhead for the hike into Santa Elena Canyon you'll be impressed by its size. |
The Rio Grande exits the canyon and turns to the right. |
Terlingua Creek feeds into the Rio Grande, but often runs dry as you see here. |
The trail in the canyon is often heavily covered by foliage. |
We saw several weird looking bugs on the trail. |
Penny sits along the trail leading into the canyon. The land to the left of the river is Mexico. |
Looking back out toward the mouth of the canyon. |
Here I am near the end of the trail. Mexico looms behind me. |
The end of the line. The canyon continues for several miles, but not with much of a level river bank. |
Several ruins of homesteads exist within the park. Here's one near the Rio Grande. |
The Coyote Cemetery served the abandoned community of Coyote for years. Note Santa Elena Canyon in the background. |
Coyote was predominantly Mexican, the cemetery graves reflect that heritage. |
The community of Castolon was nearby and served as a military post during the times of the Poncho Villa raids. |
This steam engine, built in Ohio, provided power to the post. Castolon mountain is in the background. |
The store at Castolon served local ranchers up until the 1950's. Recently someone reopened the store to serve drinks and snacks to tourists. Some of the old equipment, like this gas pump, remain. |
The entrance to Tuff Canyon. The walls of this canyon are made up of tuff, compressed volcanic ash, including some harder rock embedded in it. |
Penny sits on a large rock embedded in the Tuff. |
The darker rocks are visible embedded in the compressed ash. |
The view of the canyon from an observation post above. Our hike was on the canyon floor below. |
From much of the park the Chisos Mountain range dominates. Here we are on the desert floor looking up at the place where our hotel is located. |
More ruins. This is what remains of the Sam Nail ranch home. |
Sam built a little oasis in the desert with his windmills. Several pecan and fig trees continue to grow here from the still working water pump. |
Time to head back to the hotel. Here's another view of the Chisos. The Window is probably visible near the middle. See Day 5 for more info! |
