Big Bend - Day 4

We had a perfect day for witnessing God's wonderful creation. 

With deep blue skies, and the warm sun for comfort, it was a little bit of heaven on earth.

Just west of here is a drive that is said to be one of the most scenic drives imaginable.  It is the road from Lajitas to Presidio, however, locals all told us to turn around after the "Big Hill", if time was short.

Just past Lajitas we came upon the Contrabando Movie Set.

It was really neat to see, and we had a great chat with one of the locals that was there, who gave us some insider info. 

It didn't take long after that for the scenery to get better and better.

But the best by far, was travelling over the Big Hill.  This hill is reported to have a 15% incline.

Either way, it is a very worthwhile trip, and a stop at the top at the overlook is one you are not soon to forget.

We then headed back to the rig for lunch, before going back into Big Bend.

Our agenda today was to drive the beautiful Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, that ended at the Santa Elena Canyon Trail.

The views were once again amazing.  The speed limit in the park is 45 mph, but most of this drive was done at 35 mph, because of all the twisting turns.

Finally, we arrived at the park's crown jewel, Santa Elena canyon.

We had fun visiting with some Grade Nine students from Houston, who were extremely polite and very respectful.  It put a smile on our faces to see young people that nice.

After about a half hour walk, with much of it going up, then sharply down, you are at the narrowest part of the canyon.

As I am sure most of you know, the Rio Grande River divides the US from Mexico, so in the photo above, the left side of the canyon is in Mexico.

We drove the hour long trip home in silence, as we were running out of words to describe the beauty and majesty of this park.