Today
we decided to drive out of the National Park and head west to the Big Bend Ranch Texas
State Park. We are driving the same road
we did yesterday, except that we will not turn onto the Ross Maxwell Scenic
Drive, so I will not bore you with the same pictures. However, while driving we saw this very large
tarantula on the road and I had to stop to take its picture. It was the about 5 inches wide.
We are heading west on the
Panther Junction road and took this picture looking North West.
In a new part of the park, we
pass this section where the stone is colored in layers.
Now out of the park, we are on
Texas route 118 and then turn west onto route 170. We reach Study Butte and the old ruins and
ghost town of Terlinqua.
The “Ghost Town” is on the
National Register of Historic Places and is still occupied by artists and
others. They also claim to be the birth
place of all chili cook offs worldwide.
Here is an old service station, including a gasoline pump.
This once was the town’s hotel,
now an empty husk of a building.
There was a restaurant where we
had something to eat, outside art objects, an old cemetery, and an artist shop
or two.
As we were leaving Terlinqua, we
saw a submarine sail sticking out of the ground. In the middle of the desert! How great is this place?
On the road, we have great views
of the desert. Here you can clearly see
the strata lines between the different rock layers on the hill side.
Around Comanche Mesa, we see
another volcanic plug along with some very interesting hills around it.
Looking back along the road we
just drove down you can see the landscape we have been seeing.
A little further down the road
we came across an old western movie location.
The Contrabando movie set was the site for movies like the 1993 Rio
Diablo, 1994 Gambler V, 1995 Streets of Laredo, 1995 My Maria, 1996 Dead Man’s
Walk, and 2000 The Journeyman.
There are a few other buildings
in the movie town, but most have deteriorated.
There are a few dragonflies around the town and one had the foresight to
land in front of me.
As we leave the Contrabando
movie site we have this view. Now
doesn’t this remind you of some of the western landscapes you might have seen?
On our continued drive we pass a
number of ranches, with signs warning about loose livestock. We also pass this hill of petrified sand
dunes. You can see that there are some
hoodoo formations beginning to take shape.
Stopping at the Upper Madera
primitive camping area and overlook we have this sight. You can see the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo in the
middle, to the left of the road.
View from an overlook on the
road. You can clearly see the Rio Grande
river with Mexico on the left and the USA on the right.
Taking a short stopover, we turn
and head to Closed Canyon and the trail leading to it. When we parked and started to hike to the
canyon, there was a thermometer to let you know what the temperature was. Today on October 19th it is 95F. Here is where we are headed, to the dark
vertical line in the rocks.
Here we are at the entrance to
the canyon. You can see that it is very
narrow and the canyon is pretty high.
This waterway is for rain runoff from the surrounding mountains and
makes its way to the Rio Grande.
Entering Closed Canyon, a slot
canyon entirely in the US and was not created by the Rio Grande, is only about
20 feet wide and 1000 feet high. The
canyon is only .7 miles long, but if there is any standing water it will be
difficult to pass.
Carmen stopped following the
canyon when we came upon some standing water.
I was able to do a little climbing and passed the water, almost falling
in when I started to slip on the slick rock.
A little further, you can see there is quite a bit of sand and gravel on
the canyon floor. When the water is
rushing through the canyon, the gravel is what digs the canyon out. The water also makes the rock surface on the
bottom of the canyon slippery.
Back in the car and on our way
to Colorado Canyon, we are treated with this view.
I had to stop to take this
picture because I just love the way the lava has eroded into columns. Great colors and sharp rock formations makes
this dramatic.
How about the picture Carmen
took while we were driving by this old ruin of a house in front of the hill in
the background?
I cannot get enough of the layering on these
mountains with its different coloring in the various strata.
Along the river we found these
formations. There is a rock gouged out
to look like a hot dog, a little mushroom, and four balls sitting on
platforms. Is this natural or placed
there?
On our way back, we stopped at
this rest area which had three teepees for shading of the picnic tables.
While we were driving back to
the National Park, Carmen got a picture of the road and the landscape on our way back.
I just can’t get over the colors that
are in these hill. And you can clearly
see the horizontal striations near the top of the hill.
Back in the National Park and
what can I say, I find the rock formations and landscape here just fantastic.
We again pass the same rock
formations that we have seen for the past three days. Here as the sun is directly on the mountain we have a sharp clear view of the dramatic mountain that makes up the Mexican part of the Boquillas Canyon.
Tomorrow we are leaving and driving
to San Antonio, Texas, but tonight we are treated with this sunset.
The trip here to Big Bend National Park was well worth the stop. We would recommend anyone who has thought to come here to visit the park.
