Ross Maxwell Drive

Ross Maxwell scenic drive is the road to the western part of the park.

Like yesterday, today is going to be a lot lighter on hiking.

We were leaving Chisos Basin Lodge for the last time this morning, so we walked the Window Loop trail one more time and were rewarded with a woodpecker sighting.

The bluebonnet was in full bloom while we were there.

We stopped at the remains of the Sam Nail Ranch. There isn’t much left, there is a windmill that pumps water up and keeps some vegetation alive where the farmhouse stood. There were some birds here, but too shy to photograph.

We did a short hike down to the Homer Wilson Blue Creek ranch house and back up.

There is a small visitor center at Castolon and learned that they grew cotton in the area.

The south end of the drive is at Santa Elena canyon. The Rio Grand flows through the canyon, and one side is Mexico the other the USA. In the photos below, the left side is Mexico and the right side is the USA.

You can walk along a trail on the USA side and walk down into the canyon. The trail starts up higher on the canyon wall, but works its way down to the river a little ways in.

We stopped at Tuff Canyon.

The next day we were up for more hiking. We hiked the Chimneys Trail. This goes out to some rock formations that stick up from the flat desert. Native Americans used soot to coat the rock and carved petroglyphs into the soot.

We also hiked the Mule Ears Spring trail. Note the distinctive formation that was used identify this feature in the landscape.