Big Bend West

We explored the eastern most paved road of Big Bend NP yesterday.  Today we go west.  We'll be taking the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to Castalon, about 35 miles away.

It is a cloudless day today but not clear.  In our brief time here there has been haze that noticeably obscures distant vistas.

We soon learned that this part of Texas has air quality issues.  That is a little tough to get my head around.  We are so far away from any major population, industrial centers or traffic of any consequence that it is difficult to accept that there is smog hanging around this wide open country.  But there is, and plenty of it.  Evidently there are lots of people that ask about the haze because there are pamphlets laying around at the high people-traffic areas.  We read that the air quality studies that have been done can trace the origins of it from cities far from here within the state of Texas but also plenty of it has drifted down from the Ohio Valley.

But back to our scouting, the Ross Maxwell scenic drive winds its way across the desert floor skirting the western base of the Chisos Mountains and ending at the western most end of the Rio Grande within the park's border, 118 miles of river from where we were yesterday.  There are a number of trail heads and scenic pull-outs, too many to explore in one day.  We'll have to plan several outings on our days off to get to these.

Ross Maxwell scenic drive, it will turn west (right) and go around the bottom of the Chisos Mtns.

It seems that at least two ecosystems are always in view.  Most of the time, so far, has been desert and mountains.

It seems that every rock, hill, ridge, gully, and mud puddle has a name.  And the visitors we will be helping will expect us to know every one of them.  I hope they won't be too disappointed in us because there are so many names there is no way to not only remember them, but even make a cheat sheet to refer to.  However there are some that are impossible not to remember.  Their names are so descriptive and the structures so prominent that you can't help it.  One of them we saw on the map, and quickly came into view was Mule Ears.

Even though we are well past the peak bloom season the recent rains have extended the bloom and growing time.  And that is okay by me because if there were not some plants and animals to photograph the pictures of the desert, mountains and river would start to look a lot alike.

Skeleton Leaf Golden Eye

I grew up around prickly pear cactus but never have I seen prickly pear as huge as they are around here.

As we photographed our way across the desert floor, Mule Ears became much more prominent.

All you have to do is just turn around and the view is completely different.

We moved on into Castolon and, like Rio Grande Village, the visitor center was closed and not scheduled to open until the first of November.  And also like RGV we were disappointed in the architecture the park had chosen to use as representative of the area and history.  We went on down to the campground, named Cottonwood, and were pleasantly surprised to find a campground built on top of formerly irrigated farm land that was now beautifully shaded by some giant cottonwood trees.  One could easily see how the campground got its name.  Near the far end of this campground is a boat ramp that provides access to the river, something that we found was hard to come by.

 

Eight more miles down the road is a trail head to the Santa Elena Canyon trail.  This is a place where you can easily walk right down to the bank of the Rio Grande.  And to put icing on the cake all you have to do is just look west to see a beautiful view of the river exiting the Santa Elena Canyon.



 

Our clear day has turned cloudy, couple that with muted colors of the rock and you get a "flat" color picture.  But these 1,500' high cliffs are impressive regardless.

I am still surprised at the color of the water.  I so expected it to have the red hue I was accustomed to from all the creeks and river we grew up on around the Canadian River in the Panhandle of Texas as well as from being on the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers this summer.  But there is not a hint of red, whether shallow or deep the Rio Grande runs a milky-green.

Life is tenacious.  I am constantly amazed at where organisms gather and carve out a living.  Here in the Big Bend it is no different.  I found the below cactus and clump of grassy-looking stuff growing high up on the cliff right out of bare rock.

 



Not only was this grass-like plant growing right on bare rock, it was clinging to a vertical face too.



It has been a nice Sunday afternoon of exploring but I want to get home.  It is my birthday and Cyndee has agreed to make me something for it that I have not had in years, a cake!  It is going to be chocolate on chocolate with chocolate on the side.  And to keep it healthy we are going to top it with strawberries.  Look out sugar rush here I come.