Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive

This picture of Big Bend National Park shows the three major areas of the Park. For the past two days we have been spending our time in the Chisos Basin, where the pink arrow is pointing. Today we moved over to the west side and the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive that ends in Castolon, the green arrow. See the two red dots just below the pink arrow on the left side page? The one closest to the center fold is where we hiked today, about 11 miles along the Scenic Drive.

Trailhead of the Burrow Spring Trail, 3 miles around that center butte.

We have certainly seen lots of prickly pear cactus, but this variety was a pretty pink color.

Half way along the trail we met Jay and Sherrie, retired from Minnesota, and full-timing in an Airstream for the past five years. They will be visiting Big Bend for one month. I wish we had decided to do that, there is so much to see and do.

This is the end of the trail above Burro Springs which you can see where the green trees are at the end of the canyon. (I apologize - my iPhone camera just doesn't show depth very well.)

View out over the desert at the end of the trail.

Pretty much desert hiking around the butte.

A really pretty Torrey yucca bloom. These are all over the park now. 

After the hike we continued along the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. One of the stops was at Tuff Canyon, a narrower and deeper canyon than most in Big Bend. Flash floods carve many of the washes in the Park and are broad and shallow. This is because the material of most of the Park is gravel or shale which is easily eroded. The light gray volcanic tuff of this canyon is relatively cohesive. Swift, powerful floodwaters will cut down through any kind of bedrock, but the tuff is better able to resist the widening effects of sideward erosion.

 

The water enters the canyon at the mid-left section of this picture and flows down the stepped walls. (Once again my camera doesn't do a good job of showing the depth.)

Volcanic rocks lie at the bottom of Tuff Canyon. The creek is dry most of the time, but after a summer thunderstorm runoff churns through the canyon, cutting it deeper.

At the very end of the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive is Santa Elena Canyon of the Rio Grande. It was getting late and we didn't have time to explore the Canyon area, but we want to come back because it is certainly dramatic.

Frederick testing the waters of the Rio Grande - cool, but not cold. On the other side of the river is Mexico.

A closer look into the Canyon. We'll be back.