February 25 2013 Big Bend west side

It was VERY windy in the evening 30-40 mph. It also got down into the 30’s. The bus shook in it. John got up in the night and put in the awnings so they wouldn’t blow off. We talked to the 3 month tent retirees and they decided to stay in a motel the next night. Nothing is worse than tenting in the wind. We  had planned to  hike the Lost Mine Trail, which is on the rim of the Chiso’s basin, starts at 5,000 feet and goes to over 6,000 in 2 miles through hoo doo and volcanic formations with great views. We got to near the area and the wind was frigid and almost impossible to stand up in. We changed our plans and went to see the west side of the park instead in the car.

Chisos basin uplift seen from the west, the outside of the window is in the center. Tufts canyon seen from the overlook.

Cerro Castellans with yucca blooms in the foreground. Some volcanic uplifts and the white is tuft, which is rock formed from ash from the volcano.

Looking back at the Chiso’s mountains from an over look. We stopped in Castolon. It was at one time the town of Castolon. It had been a settlement on the Rio Grande since the 1800. As a ranch, a military outpost, a farm, a store and now a visitors center. It’s history is rich in cross cultural mingling of Hispanic culture, Indian knowledge coupled with Spanish European culture and later Anglo settlers. The buildings here were built by the military in 1916 during the Mexican revolution and to protect the area from Mexican bandits including Pauncho Villa. Up until the 50’s it served as a ranch and was called La Harmonia to promote harmony again between the nations. It was the only  general store for 100’s of miles and had everything you might need, plus was a post office, medical clinic etc. It also served as an import, export place between Mexico and the US.  9-11 changed the whole area when the border closed.

The military installation was completed at about the end of the war, so the military did not use it much. It was sold and run as a cotton plantation until the bow weevil destroyed the crops. The piece of machinery John is standing by is a steam engine used to pump water onto the fields. It was so cold and windy that we had to put on more clothes. This cagoule was all John had in the car.  So he traipsed around the desert in his rain coat! This building was a home and also used as a church and assembly spot for locals to congregate. In 1961 the park service restored many of the buildings here. They hired  Mexican adobe experts to do the adobe, they made the bricks here.

The tack room and some corrals. There was a barn, but it burnt down. The whole are had kind of a ‘transparent’ border since the isolation made it important for everyone to help each other out. After 9-11 the whole area kind of dried up isolating both sides of the border. After Castolon we drove to Santa Elena canyon.  The town had last been called Santa Helena, but when they opened the post office and applied for the permit there was already a post office at another Santa Helena in Texas, so  they changed the name to Santa Elena. The canyon is narrow with 1,500 feet walls. It is a popular boating area. It has a class IV rapid called the rock slide which is strewn with huge boulders. I traveled here twice with my brother Ray’s family to boat it and there was never enough water. There isn’t now either. We had planned on paddling upstream a few miles and back out.  95% of the water is used up before it reaches here from agriculture and population up stream. There are pools with sandbars in between.

We hiked up into the canyon. John is a tiny dot in the photo in the right corner. John walking back next to the tall reeds.

Sue in Mexico. The border is where the channel is the deepest. Here it is about 10 feet wide, so the middle is the border. We drove back along a dirt road called the Maverick trail. Here are some tall yuccas by the road.

I was surprised to see wildflowers filling the washes. Most surprised to see fields of Texas Blue Bonnets. I thought they only grew farther north on the prairies and hill country.

Blue bonnets and the country between the washes with ocotillo and yuccas.

The afternoon light on the Chisos mountains on the way back.

We once again stopped at the hot spring. The couple we shared it with are college students from Houston on spring break. They are camped up in the Chisos basin.  I was taking this photo of Boquillas canyon down river and these birds flew into my photo.

Ocotillo buds on the top of the branches, Prolific yuccas, blue bonnet, creosote bush blooms, dried mud in Santa Elena canyon-no boating here, and Texas does not seem complete without the cow skull, Palo Verde bushes have green branches, stems and long needle like leaves.

oyster fossils, white flower, yellow flowers, large dried seed head burrs, fishhook cactus and pink flowers on a large shrub.