Reflections From the Fence: Santa Elena Canyon

Monday, December 31, 2012

THE Trip, THE Encore' :: Hike at Santa Elena Canyon, Big Bend National Park

December 1, 2012

On the day that Jolly took us down the unpaved Old Maverick Road, we had planned to stop at the Santa Elena Canyon, which came highly recommended. We had our lunch at the picnic area at the beginning of the trail, and then, we were off, with hiking sticks, bottled water and of course, cameras ready to snap!

Maybe the best is first this time, the view of the canyon as you approach. That is the Rio Grande River, Mexico to the left, US to the right. There are of course, signs that you should not cross the river. We did not, but, I'll bet there are some that cannot resist the temptation, eh??

Turn just a little and you see the "hiking trail", yep, up there!

Yellow, again, smiling at us I believe. (Thanks to friend Linda, the ID: Wild Tobacco. Draws hummingbirds, oh,yes, I am sure it does draw hummers!)

Starting up the trail:

Flora grows anywhere it can get a foot, err, root hold. Prickly pear and cacti, not sure, maybe those hedge hog cacti.

Those walls are stunning, overwhelming, and, mmm, TALL!

Yes, I will share growing room with you:

Turn and look out of the canyon, back towards Big Bend and Texas and the US:

Can you guess what kind of plant this might be??

It is kin to the pineapple. It is called Hechtia, and it only grows in the Big Bend country. How cool is that??

Man and the trail where it got a bit more "natural". The first part of the trail was full of switchbacks and stairs.

A little panoramic, looking out of the canyon, big country, big photo!

Upon leaving the canyon friend D spotted butterflies, lots of them. The photo is over exposed shooting into the sun, but, you can see the butterflies! LOL

Our day had more stops and more to do, next time - -

Sunday, December 30, 2012

THE Trip, THE Encore' :: BIg Bend National Park, Jolly Goes 4-Wheeling, We Go Along For The Ride

December 1, 2012

Friends that had visited Big Bend National Park before us gave us advice on what to see, the "really gotta see this stuff" list. One stop we were informed was a MUST was to visit and preferably hike Santa Elena Canyon. J, D, Man and I looked over the maps and decided that since the roads were dry we would tackle a unpaved road called the Old Maverick Road and drive it from the west Entrance at Maverick Junction, south to the canyon, about 13 miles of gravel roads. The tour would continue in a counter-clock wise fashion through Castolon, and north along the Ross Maxell Scenic Drive to the Castolon/Santa Elena Junction and then west once more back to Study Butte. (You can find the map at the National Park Service web site, down the left side, look for View Park Map.) This was going to be a long day, so we packed our lunches, bottled water, hats, cameras, extra batteries for the cameras, hiking shoes/boots, hiking sticks, maps, and we were off:

I did mention, didn't I, how vast and barren and harsh this park is, right??

And, I did mention, didn't I, that there has been four years of drought? The ocotillo in much of the park were leafless, just dull brown sticks reaching to the sky. Interestingly, along the Old Maverick Road the ocotillo were green and even blooming! We were delighted and jumped out of Jolly to take many photos, 3 cameras going full tilt!

Lucky enough to find one plant that was rather short, I was able to get some really great close up shots of those beautiful RED RED RED flowers:

The road was graded, dug out in fact, you can see it is fairly large loose gravel. Jolly got rather dusty!

Another vista view and the geology, ravines, hills, different sizes and colors of stones/gravel/sand, or what looks like sand. Not a lot of fauna here though.