Big Bend, Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive - 2/07/15

We continued south on the scenic drive after stopping at the Nail and Homer ranches. The first overlook after the Homer Wilson Ranch was Sotol Vista.

Sotol Vista: The sotol (member of the lily family) is a spear-like plant that surrounds this overlook. Native Americans roasted the heart of the sotol for food and used the leaf fibers for robe and sandals.

The Santa Elena Canyon in the middle of the photo, 14 air-miles away, appears to be a small gap in the mesa.

Burro Mesa Pouroff: We drove the road (on the right) towards the Burro Mesa Pouroff, but did not hike the trail today. Flash flood waters from the Javelina Wash funnel down a dry fall in a narrow box canyon (called a pour off), but it is only visible if you hike the one-mile trail. Regardless, the scenery here was very beautiful.

And Sadie wanted to explore the area (not allowed!)

Mule Ears View Point: The Mule Ears are dike, rock formations, that were once enclosed in volcanic ash. The softer surrounding rock was stripped away over the years by erosion.

Tuff Canyon was carved by Blue Creek through layers of lava flows, boulders, and compressed volcanic ash called tuff.

There are two trails here: one leads to the view of the canyon and the other is a moderately steep hike down in the canyon (.75 mile round trip). I took the one to the canyon view.

There's my bill goat, straying off the designated trail again!

We stopped to take photos of these interesting rock formations before reach Castolon.

Visit the Big Bend website for additional information about the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. The geological features you can see along this road are fantastic.

Website: www.nps.gov/bibe