On
our second day, we are driving along the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive which is the
west side of the Chisos Mountains we were at yesterday. On our way we see this volcanic dome.
More of the lava spires and
domes that we have come to see as normal on our drive.
Here is part of the road we are
traveling on today. You can see a
volcanic cone in the far distance.
The spines of dark lava rock
crossing the desert are called dikes.
Looking a great stone fence, the dikes were created when lava rose along
faults or fissures in the rock millions of years ago.
You can see more of the lava
flow on this hill where one side of the hill has been eroded.
This is part of the old Homer
Wilson Ranch. Although it looks active, you
can see the foreman’s house in the center, it was abandoned in 1945.
The ranch valley stretches left
and rises to these mountains.
We stopped at an overlook and
saw these yuccas.
At the overlook we saw some
mountains in the distance with a gorge in them; the light colored wedge in the
upper right. As we read the information at
the pull off, those mountains are 14 air miles away! And the gorge is the Santa Elena Canyon.
One of the flowers that we’ve
seen in this part of the park.
This is Goat Mountain, created
by large lava explosion over an existing lava flow (the darker rock on the
bottom of the mountain). The band of
light rock half way to the top is a pyroclastic flow deposit while the top
layer is silica-rich lava.
Here’s Carmen taking pictures of
the park, while standing next to the tall thin Occatillo plant.
We are getting closer to the
canyon. You can just see the top over
the volcanic cone and sand dune.
I had to stop at the petrified
sand dunes. It looked like sand but was
like walking on rock.
We stopped at a rest stop to
have something to eat and drink. This
was built in 1919 as an outpost during the Mexican revolution. Later it was used as a trading post and a
center for cotton fields.
We finally get to Santa Elena
Canyon parking area and it is full of mud from a flooding from two days
ago. The park has been trying to clean
it up and we find a nearly clean and dry spot to part. Hiking about a mile to the gorge, we came to
this view of the mountains and the canyon.
It’s a little difficult to see, but on the bottom right of the canyon is
a stair case the you can climb to get a view from above.
Here we have a good river-level view
of the extent of the carved canyon. Santa
Elena Canyon is 8 miles long and the walls are 1500 feet high. You can see the staircase better on the bottom right of the picture.
After climbing the stairs we
followed the trail along the canyon. You
can see two other people that are also on the trail with us.
I stopped and looked back to the
beginning of the canyon. From here on it
is tricky hiking along the canyon, including climbing over boulders and jumping
across water puddles. Carmen did not
continue, but I did.
What a fantastic find; this
butterfly landed right in front of me and just stayed there until I took its
picture.
Further in, the canyon floor
gets narrower.
After coming back to catch up
with Carmen, I got her picture looking out of the canyon.
We headed back to the car and
when we got to the parking lot I decided to take a picture of the mud that is
still here.
And this is the “lightly”
flooded road. The flood was much higher
than this and this is what remains after two days.
Leaving the Canyon, we retrace
our drive on the Rose Maxwell Scenic Drive and stopped to take this picture.
Once back on the main park road we still have over 30 miles
to go to get to the motorhome. But, several
times today, we have seen a Roadrunner cross the road in front of us or running down the road and by the time
we stopped, got the cameras out and even if you could still see the bird we
could not get a good picture of it. Well
guess what? We finally see a roadrunner
when we got back to the campground. We
stopped at the visitor store by the campground and there was a Roadrunner in
the parking lot. Go figure.
Tomorrow we will drive to the Big Bend Ranch Texas State
Park.
