Closed Canyon

Closed Canyon in Big Bend Ranch State Park. The steep, narrow walls of red rock remind one of a slot canyon in Utah. To find it in Texas is a nice bonus.

I have made several hikes through here, it is an easy one but always draws me back. The curves and depth of it are always interesting. On my last visit we saw desert sheep along the rim of it.

This is a great desert experience.

Looking to Mexico

Here is a viewpoint overlooking Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park at sunset.

The far side of the river is Mexico. In the distance the tiny village of Santa Elena sits on the plain. The mountains are the start of the massive Sierra Ponce wall that Santa Elena Canyon carved out back upstream from here.

Pictographs

Pictographs in Big Bend National Park.

Pictographs are rock art that is painted on. To compare a petroglyph is rock art carved into the rock.

This area of Big Bend has both.

This is the sheltered underside of a large boulder. It could easily have been and likely was a place people lived. There are several images painted on the rock.

Desert Ridges

Desert ridges in Big Bend National Park. These ridges are in the low hills west of the Chisos on the road to Santa Elena Canyon.

The late afternoon light gives a nice defining shadow and texture to the hills.

Sunrise in Big Bend

Sunrise on a clear day in Big Bend National Park.

The first light of day as the sun rises over the hills and mountains of west Texas.

Melete Stone

At a hidden location near a forlorn mountain is a place with many pictographs and petroglyphs. There are many surfaces of smooth rock with rock art. There are also several places where the tumbled rocks have created covered shelter like areas. This one has a melete stone at one end of it. You can see the depression in the rock. The work of rock on grain over time wore that hole. The roof of this shelter had several brightly painted pictographs too.

It was one of several sites we found in this area.

Terlingua Creek

Terlingua Creek is a clear flowing stream that empties out of a vast area of land that goes from the Chisos up to almost Alpine. There seems to always be water flowing in it. Most of the year it is a small band of water, but when it rains-watch out. This rivulet becomes a raging torrent several feet deep.

On this early spring day in the dry season, the creek is only a few inches deep and running over rock and gravel.

The streaks black made an interesting pattern and I decided to try to make a decent image of the creek and planned on a return trip for first light.

Santa Elena Canyon

The view from deep inside Santa Elena Canyon. This is one of the narrowest points in the canyon. There is a trail that goes into the canyon but as you can see the walls and river only allow it to go so far. Beyond that it is only for rafts and canoes.

Hazy Ridges to Mexico

Hazy ridges looking toward Mexico from the Sotol Visa Overlook in Big Bend.

You can see down through the grasslands and foothills to the desert and the mountains in Mexico beyond.

This is a great location for sunset as the view takes in the entire western half of the park.

Border Grave

A single grave of a US Army soldier from the days when the army patrolled the Big Bend country.

The mountain is Cerro Castellan, it is part of the volcanic activity that occurred in the western half of BBNP.