56.6/23 The Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to Castolon, Big Bend National Park

Photographically and botanically, we have divided Big Bend National Park into three regions: the west as seen along the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, the east along the road to Rio Grande Village, and finally the Chisos Basin.

The Window (into Chisos Basin)

This 4,600 foot notch allows one to see Casa Grande, 7,325 feet (square-shaped mountain farthest back), and the highest peak in the Park, Emory Peak at 7,825 feet.

Ocotillo and Yellow Trumpet Flower

Ocotillo, Fouquieria splendens was always in view in Big Bend National Park, from 5,000 ft. down to the Rio Grande at 2,000 ft. elevation; although past blooming, the spiny stems were thickly clothed with green leaves.

In the background is Tecoma stans, Yellow Trumpet Flower”, in it’s native habitat. It seemed out of place in this hot desert, for we are used to seeing it in garden landscapes against green lawns throughout the southwest.

Yellow Trumpet Flower

Devil’s Head

In bare soil beneath the Ocotillos was an occasional Echinocactus horizonthalonius, “Devil’s Head”. It’s true, the thorns on the 6 inch ball are formidable, but surely the lovely pink flowers deserve a nicer name.

White-thorn Acacia Seedpods

With care, you can walk across country, but many plants are prickly—from the thorns on the Ocotillo and Cacti, to sharp leaf points on Yucca, Agave and Sotol, to hooks and spines on Acacia and mesquite. At Burro Mesa, the White-thorn Acacia, Acacia constricta was decorated with red hanging pods. The photographer has to watch out (Especially if the photographer is wearing shorts and seeking high places from which to take panoramas—Bill’s legs show quite a few battle-scars.). You have to look carefully, not only in front, but below, beside, above, and behind to avoid painful wounds.

Silverleaf by Burro Mesa Pouroff

Another showy native shrub much used in cultivation grew along the roadsides. Leucophyllum frutescens not only has attractive soft gray foliage, but fuzzy pink snapdragon-like flowers which open out after a rain storm, giving the common names of “Silverleaf” and “Barometer Bush”. I first met it as “Texas Sage” in U.C. Davis botanical garden many years ago. On this trip, we saw it often in ornamental use—at Living Desert Gardens in Palm Desert CA, Ace Hardware in Borrego Springs CA, and San Jose Mission Church State Park in San Antonio TX.

Silverleaf


VIEWS ALONG THE ROSS MAXWELL SCENIC DRIVE

The West Side of the Chisos Mountains

Goat Mountain

Cerro Castellan

The road ends at Saint Elena Canyon on the Rio Grande near the old settlement of Castolon. The Park maintains a campground, a small store, and a photographic museum of the days of the Texas Rangers and the US Army at the time of the Mexican Revolution there. (The temperature in the shade while we were there was around 106° and humid; we didn't stay long!)


Some notes.
We enjoy your comments; they give us ideas how to make our blog more interesting. Unfortunately, we are not able to reply in a timely manner for two reasons: (1) the comment comes as an anonymous, “no reply e-mail” that does not give any return address, (2) because our connections with the internet are sporadic (none of the parks we have stayed in, whether national or state, have offered WiFi so far), so we sometimes don’t read your comment until a week or ten days after you have composed it. I am particularly interested in the tech details—are the pictures, when you click on them, too big, not big enough, too light or too dark, clear, muddy, colorful, drab, too many, too few, etc.? You can send an e-mail that we can reply to: bjpawek@comcast.net.

In my pictures, I try not to present you with just a record shot, but rather my interpretation of the subject.

In suggesting places we might want to visit—which we encourage wholeheartedly—keep in mind that we don't know where we are going next—somewhere down the road, we will hit Washington, DC and farther, we expect to reach Quebec, Canada, but in between and on the way home (in October?), your guess is as good as ours.

So far the blog has encouraged me to be much more orderly in sorting, cataloging, and storing my photographs as we go along than I usually am.