Santa Elenas Canyon

Chisos Mountains

Chisos Mountains

The Road to Satan Elenas Canyon

Tuff Canyon

Tuff Canyon

Tuff Canyon

Tuff Canyon

Sotol Vista

Good Dog

Santa Elenas Canyon

Santa Elenas Canyon

Santa Elenas Canyon

Climbing to Santa Elenas Canyon

Mule Ears

Sotol Vista

Sotol Vista

Corn Cob Eatin' Dog

Drivin'

      Before dawn we head back into the park, this time turning south to explore the other half of the Big Band. Here the mountains still abound, but the quality is different. We are in them. The road cuts into the base of the giants and sometimes climbs huge curves to passes separating two massive mountains. The views are more in your face. We pass the Mule Ear Mountains, obviously named and stop at Tuff Canyon. We have a wonderful hike to the floor and in a mile with small 75 foot cliffs on either side. I can see rustlers hiding here in Louis Lamoure stories. Rock is wonderful. It kapthas my vata.

            Another 20 miles, 40 miles total from Terlingwa.  We reach Santa Elenas Canyon. As you approach the astounding 1500 foot high block of rock that sits at the edge of the Rio Grande and runs for 15 miles and separates Mexico for the US, you see something that defies your belief. The Rio Grande river cuts through the massive shelf of rock. We climb 80 feet into the air on a walkway with steps and flats that switches direction a dozen times before gradually falling back to the river. By the time you are at river level again you are well into the canyon, the towering rock 1500 feet above is humbling. The water, everywhere else low and rocky is deeper here and we had seen canoes heading up river through the canyon. We travel ½ a mile deep into the rock cut canyon, heads crooked upward mostly, for the rock is what happening here.  I have often stared at the ocean and stood in awe of the quantity of water that must exist in that body. Impossible amounts of liquid. It is a similar thought I have as I stand, the path ended as the rock walls fall into the water now. There is so much rock. And here it flaunts itself sticking up into the air and I now surrounded by it. I understand claustrophobia now.

The ride back is hard on the RV, climbing steep inclines to get out of the valley. At the roads highest point we take a break and pull off to the Sotol Vista. As we reach the top and park, I am overwhelmed by the grandeur. We are humbled again, but this time by space. In every direction is a miracle. To the north is the south rim of the Chisos Mountains, the cliffs we have just left and the Santa Elana Canyon sits in the far distance, but it will be impossible to describe. Even the pictures I post pale, because it is the moment. Those few moments when to understand is impossible, it is only to be. Something here is life changing. I do not want to leave. I want to live here. Suddenly a “in the moment”, thought comes: I do live here. I have my house and most of my family. We do live here, and so we cook lunch.