On a Bender

Big Bend National Park, TX At long last, we entered Big Bend National Park this morning.  Big Bend refers to the great southwest dipping turn that the Rio Grande River makes in this area, defining the park boundary for 118 miles.  Covering 801,163 acres, Big Bend is one of the largest, most remote, and least visited national parks in the contiguous 48 states.  Across the river, adjacent Mexican territory enjoys a protected natural area status, forming a "sister park" with Big Bend.  And twelve miles to the west, Big Bend Ranch State Park, which enthralled us with its scenery yesterday, extends this preserve another 60 miles or so.

Our visit to the park began with a drive down Old Maverick Road, a 14-mile washboard dirt/chunky gravel track, headed toward Santa Elena Canyon, recommended as one of the most impressive areas of the park.  The landscape along Old Maverick was quite monochromatic, a warm yellowish beige, but the variety of plant materials and rocks rendered a canvas with luxurious texture.

Off Old Maverick Road (Santa Elena Canyon in distance)

Before we reached the canyon, we caught a glimpse of some type of animal scurrying across the road.  Stopping amidst the dust swirls stirred up by a half dozen motorcyclists roaring past, we were far too late to catch up with the mystery critter.  Fox?  Javelina?  We'll never know.

Approaching the floor of Santa Elena, the vegetation increased in frequency and variety thanks to the regular summer overflow of the Rio Grande at the canyon floor.  Like the other dozen or so tourists on site, we climbed the trail up the hill for a vertical view of the canyon's stunning vista.

Santa Elena Canyon (U.S. on right, Mexico across the river on left)

Near the top of our climb, we were startled when Ken's phone rang.  Cell service in this remote part of West Texas is as rare as cheap gas, and we almost fell off the side of the canyon from the shock.  It was one of our godsons, Max, whom we had tried to reach for his birthday yesterday.  As long as we stood perfectly still, we were able to sustain the signal for a brief visit with Max.  Only later did it occur to us that we might have been engaged in an inadvertent bit of international roaming off a Mexican cell tower.  We'll know the rest of the story when our next Verizon bill comes to call.

From Santa Elena, we took the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive up through Castelon to the main road. Along the way we traveled through the geologic history of Big Bend.   

Cerro Castellan

Stacked in the layers making up Cerro Castellan is evidence of millions of years of volcanic events, lava flows piled on ash deposits with layers of gravel and clay amassing in between periods of eruptions.  Farther along the road, ash deposits are much closer to the road, creating a dramatic landscape of fudge-rippled contrasting colors.

Ash deposits on Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive

Tuff Canyon provides more geologic history and drama.  Tuff is a sort of compressed volcanic ash laced with hot rock and other material spewed out during an eruption.  And this tuff is really tough.  It's been around more than 20 million years.

Tuff Canyon

Our final destination in the park was the Chisos Basin.  The southernmost mountain range in the U.S., the Chisos Mountains are completely contained within Big Bend National Park.  Having risen up from the desert floor as we drove toward a cooler mountain habitat, we entered the tree zone as we reached the Chisos.

At the Chisos Basin Visitor Center, we encountered one of the local paisanos, the local nickname for the roadrunner, a bird often used as a symbol of the area.  This poor guy was running around the parking lot as I stalked him for a photo op.  Posted on a map inside the center were reports of mountain lion and black bear sightings, which had been frequent.  Those I would not chase after, even for a close-up shot.

Big Bend Paisano

From an elevation of less than 2,000 feet along the Rio Grande to nearly 8,000 feet in the Chisos, Big Bend encompasses rugged deserts, rocky canyons and forested mountains.  With so many scenic vistas, we found ourselves again lamenting our failure to bring Woodie to capture worthy photos of these picturesque panoramas.  Once, just after we called out to him, a phantom motorcyclist zoomed past us and we had to wonder, was it Woodie?

Woodie does love motorcycles...

ROAD NOISE