Big Bend Day Three

We planned to hit three trails along Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive.  It was 33 miles to get to the scenic drive and then it was another 30 miles to Santa Elena Canyon.  We ate a quick breakfast and then packed up our food for the day.  As we were driving, I would stop and take pictures.  The kids eventually just got used to it and didn't even bother to ask why we were stopping.  I was quite tickled to get the moon in these  photos.  Our first hike of the day was the Chimneys Trial.  We went out to where we had a good view of the chimneys and then turned around.  There wasn't much to do on the trail.  We were in flat desert with not much around.  There were some pretty views, but the Chimneys weren't that exciting.  We stopped at the Tuff Canyon overlook on our way to Santa Elena Canyon.  Not too exciting either.
The Santa Elena Canyon Trail was really fun.  It was a crazy climb into the canyon, but once we were in, there were huge boulders to climb.  Our kids love to climb, so they had a wonderful time.  There are some videos to prove it at the end.
Our next stop was the Dorgan - Sublett Trail.  This took us to see the ruins of some homes built in the early 1900s.  I can't imagine that kind of isolation, but the views were fantastic.
Our last hike was the Mule Ears Trail.  It was through volcanic rock fields and the desert.  It lead us to an oasis with a spring.  There was a huge green tree in the middle of the desert.  We were hiking close to sunset and got back just before dark.  We got to watch a beautiful sunset.  I know this post has a crazy amount of photos, but we saw so much in one day.

Morning moon shot.

One more because I thought it was cool.

View from the other side of "the window".

We did go the whole way to the chimneys, but we probably went about 2 miles.

I did a lot of this, as you can see from this post.

The kids with the chimneys in the background.

The Chimneys.  We didn't think they were worth the two mile walk.

There were some pretty views along the way.

View from Tuff Canyon overlook.

I stopped the van to capture this rock.

View point to Santa Elena Canyon.

This was a 1.8 mile hike.

We had to climb these switch backs to get into the canyon.

Gavin and Renee running ahead.

View out of the canyon.

playing on the rocks

I took this photo with a timer and a rock.

Renee holding up the rock so it wouldn't fall on Carter.

On top of another rock.

In the canyon.

They never got tired of this game.

Bamboo hiking stick.

named for the rock formation to the right of the sign

checking out the cacti

Mule Ears Spring

The huge tree in the middle of the desert.

Walking at sunset.

Carter got hot.

jumping on the volcanic rock