Big Bend and Santa Elena Canyon

1. We have driven many miles to get here and have finally arrived at our 1st much anticipated destination. We are booked in at the Maverick Ranch RV Resort for a week which is in the "community" of Lajitas. This is located at the southern point between the Big Bend Ranch State Park and the Big Bend National Park. Now that we are here...where do we start as the park is big and our general knowledge of this area is small.
   Friday morning we leave early in the cool of the morning (because of the 34C heat in mid day) to the entrance of the National Park and select the Ross Maxwell scenic drive which gives us a good taste of the Chihuahuan Desert and lead us to the Rio Grande River that is the border between Texas and Mexico. There are many scenic outlooks, vistas and flowering cacti to enjoy.
   

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A highlight is the walk into the Santa Elena Canyon - one of Big Bends most scenic spots. We loved it!
We had a picnic lunch at the Castolon Visitor Centre and then completed our loop drive back to camp. We had supper at the L and D Diner where we know the food is good! Lyle cooked his Gourmet Wiener Creole (secret recipe) AND let all us win at the card game "Spite and Malice" also know as B...gg... Your Neighbour! This retirement thing is not that bad after all!

Exploring the towns of Fort Davis and Alpine

Wow the weather here is awesome! Small towns at there best: Alpine pop of 6000 and Fort Davis pop of 1100. The combination of hills, valleys, creeks and desert has provided some of the prettiest country side that we have seen on this trip. We are reluctant to leave this area. Alpine has a terrific True Value Hardware store and John was lucky enough to fit in two visits and absorb the atmoshpere. He loves hardware stores! The IGA store is very well stocked and the staff......unbelievable. There is Sul Ross University and a great Big Bend Museum that Lyle and Dorothy enjoyed. This weekend the town will be full as they host an annual Cowboy Poetry Reading Event. We're told were will be missing something very intersting.
By the way I have noticed that not all the links to websites posted are properly hyperlinked but can not fix that until I have a Stable Internet connection. At the moment I have a limited connection so who knows. Jeff is right.....we need an Air Card!
The Town of Fort Davis may be small but it is absolutely the most quaint, homey, authentic western town thatI have visited so far. It has been in the setting of several movies and I can see why.

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