I slept great again last night...snug in my tent as the temperatures stayed in the 50's. I'm up at sunrise...make coffee, cook breakfast (eggs, bacon and a big glass of milk).
There are deer walking through the camp this morning...they come every day. They seem pretty relaxed around humans, and you can walk up pretty close to them. I've also seen a few jackrabbits and those funny little birds...roadrunners (no wily coyotes though).
I'm thinking that maybe I'll pack up tomorrow and start heading east. I'd really like to spend more time here in Big Bend, but I've got a lot more to see and do. So...today, I decide to drive south in the Park...down to Santa Elena Canyon. This is a magnificent National Park...every bit as impressive as any of the other Parks that I've visited. I've made some new friends at my campground...a couple from Odessa (they've been coming here for forty years)...another couple from Missouri (they've come every year for as long as they can remember). People love this Park...they are drawn to it...and they keep coming back.
The drive south today is absolutely gorgeous...mountains, valleys, all sorts of unusual rock formations. It's thirty miles or so from camp to the Canyon, and it takes me over an hour...with many stops for photos. The canyon i part of a geological formation known as a "rift". This is where two geological "plates" shift up or down creating a huge rift (see photo). I have been fortunate enough to see the world's largest rift in Kenya...back thirty years or so ago. It's a very impressive sight.
The drive back to camp is leisurely...more photos...a couple of short hikes off the highway.
I'm back at camp by 3:00 or so, and I take an hour to do some preliminary packing up for the trip tomorrow. I've got that second rib eye to cook, and it's every bit as good as the first one...beefy and so tender, I can cut it with my fork. I may have had better steaks than these...but not many. After dinner, I linger over a bottle of wine (a Spanish red) as the sun sets behind the mountains surrounding my camp...then...the stars are out again...the sky is full of stars. This is a moment when you really feel good to be alive...and fortunate enough to witness such a thing of beauty.
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