We decided to make Santa Elena Canyon our featured stop for the day. From the Park entrance, it was a 38-mile drive with many interesting sites and stops along the way. The weather was beautiful, although forecasted to get very hot in the afternoon. I’ve included this map to illustrate what turned out to be a 51-mile clockwise loop around the southwest corner of the Park. I’ve added blue numbers to correspond to our descriptions and photos below, starting with the number 1 at the entrance.
1. We had shown our National Parks Pass at the entrance on Day 1. This of course entitled us to free entry, which is always nice, but also the ranger provided a windshield sticker that allowed us to be waved in without waiting in line over the next week. This too was nice but would have been more meaningful were the Park crowded. Frankly, we didn’t see many other visitors and considered ourselves lucky. As was always the case, the roadside desert flora was surprisingly colorful and plentiful. We were there near the end of the spring blooming season.
2 and 3. Thirteen miles past the entrance we turned right at the Castolon/Santa Elena Junction. This put us onto the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive and took us along the western side of the Chisos Mountains. The mountains were much more photogenic under mostly sunny skies. A dark line of rock was common in these photos and a roadside placard explained what they were. Molten magma seeped upward through faults about 17 million years ago. While still underground, the magma crystallized, was later exposed by erosion, and became what are called igneous intrusions. More specifically, we saw lines of intrusions called “dikes” because they entrap water and subsequently provide partial nourishment for desert flora and fauna. There were thousands of igneous intrusion formations across the Park.
4. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, pioneers came to the area and attempted to settle and establish new lives. There were a number of ranch buildings and structures from that period now being preserved by the National Park Service. We stopped at an overlook to see one called Blue Creek Ranch. It was built by Homer Wilson in 1929, and at 28,000 acres was the first large ranching operation in the Big Bend area. Homer focused on goats and sheep, and ranched until his death on 1943. We could see a uniquely constructed corral behind the house. There was a trail, which took you to the ranch for a closer look. No thanks! We had too much yet to see and do.
5. Less than a mile down the road, we parked at another scenic overlook called Sotol Vistas. MFI had to use the facilities, and she gave them an enthusiastic thumbs up for cleanliness. Sotol is the name of the pictured plant, and also the name of the alcoholic drink distilled from its leaves. We’ve never tried any, but It is said the taste is generally soft, creamy, and herbal in contrast to the smoky flavor of mezcal or the pronounced alcoholic bite of tequila.
6. Our next stop was at the trailhead to the Lower Burro Mesa Pouroff. If you’re as uninformed as we were, then you’re asking, “what is a pouroff?” Turns out it is nothing more than a periodically dry waterfall. The trail was only a mile roundtrip, so MFI joined me. The hike followed a dry creek bed running west from the pouroff through a small canyon. As we approached the pouroff, colorful lizards darted across the creek in front of us. They were fast, but I was faster.
On the hike back to Sid, we got our first look at Santa Elena Canyon from 20 miles away. Already impressive!
7. One of the Park’s more prominent igneous intrusion formations was Mule Ears. The peaks rose to 3,881′. No, we didn’t hike these trails either.
8. The Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive begins a long descent to the Rio Grande at this point. There were two more unique igneous intrusion formations along the way and a section of exposed, solidified volcanic ash. The ash looked like piles of loose white gravel, but they were in fact as hard as concrete. All evidence of ancient, violent volcanic activity.
We stopped in Castolon to use the facilities, peruse the Visitor Center, check out the retail store, and browse the historic buildings. The Visitor Center was closed (summer hours), and the buildings were inaccessible because of a maintenance and restoration project. Castolon began as a general store built in 1901 by a local farmer, Cipriano Hernandez. New farmers and ranchers who settled in the area were supported by the Castolon Store. In 1916, the US military established an outpost (Camp Santa Helena) at Castolon in reaction to the Mexican Revolution. However, the troops were withdrawn when the revolution ended in 1919, and the abandoned military buildings were taken over by The La Harmonia Company. The company, operated by Wayne Cartledge and his son Eugene, was a cotton farm and trading post. The farms and ranches eventually could not remain viable. Castolon had some farm and irrigation equipment from that period on display, but unfortunately, without access to the buildings, the overall historical vibe was temporarily lost on us.
9. Six miles up river, I hiked a quarter mile of the short Sublett-Dorgan Trail. In 1918, James Sublett and Albert Dorgan were business partners on 2,560 acres called “Grand Canyon Farms.” The trail passed by the ruins of their family homes, a farmhouse, and a ranch house for farm hands. I only went to the smaller of two homes built by James and Melissa Sublett. We were intrigued by the construction. Mortar was not available in this remote location. Luckily, the desert provided an unending supply of rocks.
10. We finally arrived at Santa Elena Canyon during the hottest time of the day. The canyon was formed over an extremely long period of time and multiple geological events. Between 60 and 130 million years ago, the Great Plains were covered by an inland sea, which rose and fell in depth multiple times. Across the Big Bend area, this chaning sea laid down sediment layers, which hardened into limestone as shown in the illustration below. Tectonic activity lifted and folded these limestone layers, and the river has been slowly eroding them for 2-3 million years. The canyon is 8 miles long and has walls as high as 1500′; and the river is only 30 feet wide at its narrowest point.
I headed out on the Santa Elena Canyon Trail, which promised to take me about a mile upstream into the canyon. Imagine my surprise when after a half mile the trail ended at the confluence of the Rio Grande River and Terlingua Creek. Kayakers were finishing their canyon float along a sandy shoreline. I could see hikers on the other side of the creek, and I was trying to figure out how to cross and continue my hike. I waded into the creek several times, but the bottom was extremely muddy and dangerously slippery. Eventually, four hikers exited the canyon trail and carefully waded across to where I was. Since the water was only waist deep, off I went as MFI took a video.
The trail climbed 80 feet up the canyon wall and afforded an excellent view into the canyon, down to the river, and out of the canyon. I crossed paths with three young hikers who agreed to swap cameras, so we could photograph each other. The trail didn’t go far enough to offer more than this one upstream view. The downstream views were plentiful as I hiked out.
11. Initially, we considered driving out the way we’d come in. But because the temperature had reached 101 degrees F, and we were very tired, we decided to return via Old Maverick Road (dirt). Our map showed it was only 13-miles to the Park entrance. Bad choice! The road was so rough we rarely reached 15 MPH. We frequently had to slow down to a near stop due to severe vehicle vibrations caused by the road’s washboard surface. Some shortcut! Took us well over an hour.
About half way back, we made a final stop to see Luna’s Jacal (hack-KAHL), a different type of desert home. Around 1890, a Mexican pioneer farmer named Gilberto Luna built this home, raised a large family, and farmed the surrounding area by diverting water from nearby Javelina Creek. The jacal was an indigenous Tejano dwelling made of rocks, earth, and plants. The floor of the house was about a foot below ground level, its stone walls were 4-feet high, and the roof was made from ocotillo branches held down by rocks and earth. There was a significant temperature drop when I entered.
Day 2 was very fulfilling. We saw the most prominent sites, got some hiking exercise, and experienced the difficulty of early pioneers who settled in the desert. Our success had us looking forward to what Day 3 could offer. We sure slept soundly that night.
