Waking up in the RV was followed by delicious breakfast tacos courtesy of my dad. Glamping is a new term to me (Glamorous-camping) and though I don't think we were bathing in the lap of luxury, it sure was a treat to have the RV amenities on this trip (I don't eat tuna on cinnamon-raisin bread because it's good).
We wrapped up our morning meal and Mom piloted the RV to the first of our day's adventures. The Lost Mine trail. I had never hiked it, but from what I gathered, it was a nice sampler to cover the vistas and habitat of the high Chisos without making a brutal journey to the South Rim or Emory Peak. Its trailhead located at the top of the pass is a nice head start on the elevation. This was one of the most legitimate hikes my parent's had done in quite some time, and through the sweat and fatigue they made it to the top. We took about 2 hours to get up and 1 hour back down. Roughly 5 miles. Way to go parents!! Too bad they didn't have any restrooms at the trailhead. Oh wait. We had one in the RV. And a shower. And snacks. Lots of snacks. I didn't use the facilities but I ate to my heart's content every chance I had.
We wrapped up our morning meal and Mom piloted the RV to the first of our day's adventures. The Lost Mine trail. I had never hiked it, but from what I gathered, it was a nice sampler to cover the vistas and habitat of the high Chisos without making a brutal journey to the South Rim or Emory Peak. Its trailhead located at the top of the pass is a nice head start on the elevation. This was one of the most legitimate hikes my parent's had done in quite some time, and through the sweat and fatigue they made it to the top. We took about 2 hours to get up and 1 hour back down. Roughly 5 miles. Way to go parents!! Too bad they didn't have any restrooms at the trailhead. Oh wait. We had one in the RV. And a shower. And snacks. Lots of snacks. I didn't use the facilities but I ate to my heart's content every chance I had.
Major hike complete! Onward to Santa Elena Canyon! I kept describing to my parents how majestic and beautiful it was, and that we'd just do a little hike into the canyon and hang out and it'd be great. But first we had to drive through the Ross Maxwell Scenic.. drive. Mom and Dad up front. Sailor Stephen in the back. I figured out how to open the screen windows on both sides of the RV and I went crazy taking pictures in every direction. I had been through these drives several times before but NEVER had the opportunity to photograph everything around me. Not like this. It was amazing, I had two cameras ready. One long lens, one wide-medium lens, and I was all over that RV changing windows, changing stances, changing cameras, snapping so many shots. I felt like I was on a ship in a moment of all hands on deck. So here are a bunch of pictures that were too hard not to share. It's basically a geologist's heaven all the way through.
Santa Elena Canyon! Again, I told my parents so much about it, told my mom to wear her sandals for the sandy beach and get ready to relax, but what I completely forgot was the long, steep and exposed climb. Whoops! Sorry Mom! You can see the improved ramp climb that you have to go up and over to get into the canyon. Many parets were completely exposed without railing and had significant drops to the paths below. Mom wasn't thrilled. And before that, the water was over the usual dry-stream crossing so we had to whack through a willow forest detour. We made it to the end of the trail where a tiny sand bar was waiting. It was probably 6 times bigger when I was there 3.5 years ago. Another let down for my parents, I guess. Whatever, I was so happy to be there, and I went for a swim. I swam to Mexico, actually. It was covered in rat poop and I thought of my friend Jill and her Hantavirus scare so I didn't make myself comfortable. The river was surprisingly very shallow, never more than 3 feet or so. 100% refreshing though. That's one badass canyon. I would spend a whole day sitting in there if I could.
We made it out of the canyon and got to drive back through the beautiful road that brought us there. I had already snapped as many pictures as possible on the first run but I managed to get a couple more shots with some nice light. We stopped to try on some Mule Ears too. It was cool to get some shots looking UP the Window Canyon as we drove past the western edge of the Chisos Mountains.
We made it back to the Chisos Basin to our lovely campsite/parking spot and in time to catch another moonrise. At the end are some bonus pictures from my Dad's camera. The image with my mom was a HUUUUUGE rock in Santa Elena Canyon that had fallen from the canyon walls some time long long ago. It made me think about the amount of energy that thing carried down with it. Unfathomable. Thanks for reading, y'all!!
