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 2/23- Big Bend NP, TX

   This morning the temps only got down to the low 30’s so it was nice. We headed out to Santa Elena Canyon. 

    The mountains on the other side of the river are just shear cliffs almost 2000 feet high. Santa Elena is a canyon that just slices right through this seemingly impenetrable barrier. The Rio Grande is what made this slash in this wall. The hike takes you into the canyon and it is very impressive looking up sheer walls for 2000 feet. One side of the canyon is the US and the other is Mexico. The path goes about 3/4 of a mile into the canyon where it was very cool and out of the sun. The water is so shallow that you can wade across. 

    It was a very impressive place. We saw one kid who was about 9 or ten exclaim to his parents that he had never seen anything as beautiful in his life. 

    Once outside the canyon the river takes a long right hand turn and leaves a large sandy beach like area. Here the river was so shallow we walked across on the rocks. So now I can say I’ve been to Mexico. The cows that were hanging out were not suitably impressed. 

   We followed that up with a short hike to some old abandoned adobe houses. These belonged to a farmer who had a huge farm here on the subplain. He stopped farming in 1930 and now there would be no evidence of his existence if not for the National Park Service preserving these buildings. Just goes to show how fleeting our existence is. 

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