Part 3: Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive

Okay, no glaciers, no waterfalls, but plenty of desert - maybe we can learn some geology. . .

Here's another view looking east from the Scenic Drive western face of the Chisos Mountains. The window into the Basin is the V-shape about a quarter of the way from the right edge. Since you were introduced to Casa Grande in the previous post you'll probably recognize it in the left portion of the window.

In Geology, a dike (or dyke) is a sheet of rock that is formed in a fracture in a pre-existing rock body. An excellent example is the orange stripe uncovered by erosion between the hills on the right. As I understand it, that stripe is the top of a vertical wall of igneous rock which filled a fracture in the surrounding rock. Presumably, as that saddle erodes further, more and more of the orange wall will be exposed. This type of dike is called magmatic.

The shot above shows more examples of magmatic dikes and in truth, they're all over the place in and around the Chisos Mountains.

This was shot from the Sotol Vista Overlook looking west-southwest towards Santa Elena Canyon, the path worn through a very impressive landform by the Rio Grande. If you look past that mesa 4.5 mi out, you'll see the notch that marks eastern end of Santa Elena Canyon 14.6 mi away. The ridge behind that appears to be a bluff (4265') 34 miles away in the Parque Nacional Cañon de Santa Elena. And beyond that, 166 mi away is the Ciudad de Chihuahua. Ain't Google Maps great?

We're still on our way to Santa Elena Canyon but first, compare the picture above with the previous one. What a difference! And they're on the same planet! Just over 8 mi apart. I can't tell you a thing about the features in this shot, but it's awesome. How can people not love geology?

This one is Cerro Castellan - I tried to get Google to translate it and it came up with: Cerro Castellan. Not much help there. My best guess is Castle Hill. If anyone out there can translate it, by all means let me know. This was one of the places I'd scouted beforehand and had big plans to shoot. In the event, the beautiful blue sky with mares tails galore has begun to cloud over and I don't hold much hope for a Big Bend signature sunset. And besides that, I'm running out of steam. I may work on this shot later - I actually shot the sky earlier in the day anticipating exactly this  eventuality - and with the right sky. . . you never can tell.

Here we are - Santa Elena Canyon. Mexico on the left, US on the right and the Rio Grande in between, Yeah, I know. I'd hoped to actually see the river here too - but it's there, I promise. The overlook just isn't high enough. Well, whether it's the sky with no clouds or too many clouds or an overlook that doesn't quite, you do the best you can with what you have to work with. I did check for you; the elevation at the base of canyon wall is 2160' and the top is 3600'.

Finally, let me address the Mule Ears. I was looking for them much of the afternoon. I knew generally where they were but missed the turnoff driving south. There's a sign for Mule Ear Overlook (on Mule Ear Road) and the overlook is also the trailhead for a trail to Mule Ear Spring and beyond. No Mule Ears. I'd wanted to see them and compare them to pictures I've seen of the Bear Ears up near Utah's Escalante Staircase NM; you know, the National Monument the feds are selling off to the oil and gas special interests. Well, I'm happy to report that the Bear Ears look like bear's ears and the Mule Ears look like mule's ears.

I'm outta here. I made it back to Austin at 3:00 the next morning (after sleeping for two hours in a well-placed I-10 rest area).

Part 2: The Chisos Mountains / Chisos Basin

You might know that I enjoy planning these roadtrips almost as much as I do taking them. After all, I can take a nap when I get tired of planning, but the exigencies the trip itself won't always allow one to pull over for an hour or two. In any case, I saw enough images in Google Street View to pick out ahead of time a few different places I wanted to shoot for myself, all the while knowing there would be others as well.

Once through Panther Junction and on the Basin Road I started looking for subjects to shoot (from a safe vantage point). Having started the climb, a glance in the mirror reminded me not to forget to look behind. The shot above is looking back down the road towards the junction and the Park entrance in the distance. The shot below looks up into the Chisos towards Panther Pass (5679'), entrance to the Chisos Basin

The first real traffic I encountered was at the Basin Visitor Center. I found a place to park and saw this rock pile in my windshield. "Oh, that's kind of interesting," and grabbed the camera. I shot it head on and explored my surroundings for a few other possibilities. The picture that makes your day could be anywhere. I became engaged with the views as I wandered around the parking lot and forgot to go to the Visitor Center. When I started forgetting such things, my tee shirt collection started down hill in a hurry.

I drove around the area for awhile - checking out different views - and shot this one. The peak just right of center happened to be the back side (west face) of the previous picture. As it turned out, I was slowly becoming aware that there seemed to be only a few notable geologic formations in the Basin but, if you're lucky, multiple views of each. Variety is where you find it.

Ah! The Window I mentioned in yesterday's post. I initially took exception to the term "window" as applied here. Elsewhere, in Utah or Arizona for example, a window would be a hole usually caused by erosion in a geologic wall. In this case, I suppose it could be considered a window in the sense that from the interior of the Basin, if you turn 360°, the only place you can see out (of the Basin) is through this window. I studied the map when I got home to discover just what it was I was seeing out there. Terlingua (think back: Frank Tolbert and Chili Cook-Off) is out there at about 17 mi. Beyond that, the line of sight crosses the Rio Grande at about 53 mi (a bit south of Redford, TX).

I continued looking for additional points of view that wouldn't require my climbing anything higher than a curb and found this one. The view through the window isn't as good as the previous one because I'm lower. But the detail in the foreground is a bit better (landscapes ought to have foreground, middleground, and background points of interest). Imagine my surprise sorting pictures to find that basically, the only difference between the two shots is the elevation of my station point. Everywhere else I tried, the window itself was blocked or partially blocked from view. I guess there's a lesson in there somewhere.

This monolith, Casa Grande (7325') towers over the whole Basin. The view is impressive, but not really spellbinding. I suspect it's because I don't really have a foreground point of interest.

That same bugaboo continues to haunt me: nothing in the basin hides Casa Grande but, when I align interesting foreground and middleground elements with it, I find myself on the same line. This is too much!

I guess I can't escape it - at least while confined by the Basin. Of the three, this is my favorite view of Casa Grande. I should note that finding and aligning the foreground and middleground elements just so is what this is all about. I even used the spear of Sotal to draw your attention to the Big House. You don't compare this view of Casa Grande with a Cape Hatteras sunrise. You appreciate what you've got in front of you and do the best you can with it.

Tomorrow's post will take us south along the west side of the mountains on the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to see what we can find.

Big Bend National Park - Redux

Some of you might remember that I bought a new car at the end of January last year and christened it with a two-day roadtrip to White Sands National Monument and a brief visit to Big Bend National Park on the way home to Austin. The reason for short-timing Big Bend on that initial go-around was that I had failed in my trip planning to check with the myriad Texas independent school districts to see when Spring Break was scheduled. All the kids I would have expected (had it occurred to me to check) to be at South Padre Island or Port Aransas, went camping at Big Bend that weekend with their extended families, and all of their best friends - in multiple cars, of course. I drove straight in the west gate and out the north gate. The place was packed.

This time I did check the school schedules and don't remember seeing any kids! That's weird, isn't it? These first pictures are multi-frame panoramas. Click on any of the pictures for a larger view.

I departed Austin at 04:30 and entered the north gate at 11:00 with only one gas stop en route - did I mention it's a long way? I thought I'd give you a brief overview here of the two areas I'd be exploring. First is the Chisos Basin, surrounded* as you might expect by the Chisos Mountains. The elevation varies from about 2800' at the Park entrance and 3800' at Panther Junction (at the base of the mountains) over the 30 mile approach. The view above is about 27mi from Panther Junction. The highest peak, just about in the middle, is Emory Peak at 7832' and the average elevation of the basin floor is about 5000'. 

*surrounded except for a V-shaped break in the west wall of the basin styled a "window".

The second of the three sections of the park is the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, which wanders south and west through the Chihuahuan desert from the (east-west) Panther Junction Road down the west side of the Chisos Mountains towards the Rio Grande. The view above is looking east at the Chisos from two or three miles away, perhaps two miles south of the Panther Junction Road. Though the desert itself holds some charms, my primary interest in the drive south was the geology on display.

This very similar view has a more interesting foreground, and it's a little closer to the mountains. About midway across the span of mountains look for the V-shaped "window" into the basin. You can miss it because the east wall of the basin blends well with the west.

The third major section of the park - which I did not visit - heads southeast towards the major RV campground in the park, Rio Grande Village, formerly Boquillas, TX. Boquillas existed "to service mining operations in Boquillas del Carmen, Mexico just across the Rio Grande."

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These next few pictures are simply details of the Chihuahuan desert I stopped to shoot inside the Basin and on the drive to Santa Elena Canyon and the Rio Grande. I don't know if this is Cholla cactus or not, but I was wary enough to stay the hell away from it. Google it to see why.

This view gives you an idea of the roadside flora within the Chisos Basin. Note how crowded everything is; the Basin clearly stores more ground water than the typical desert floor does. Many of the plants are similar to those outside, but not all. You wouldn't find that pine tree, for example,  on the drive south to the river.

Here's another cactus mystery. I know there's a purple prickly pear variety that looked something like this (lower left) at the visitor center but I didn't stop to read the description. And this doesn't really look like the pictures of Opuntia macrocentra on the AZ Plant Lady's website. Any authorities out there?