Preceding retirement almost 20 years ago, Kay and I spent several hours over the course of a few weeks developing a “life list” of items we wanted to do in the years to come. (Our dear friend Ed Richmond coined the term “life list” long before the movie Bucket List came out.) Among the things on that original list—we’re now on our fourth revision—was a trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas. Today, Wednesday, March 27, 2024, we checked that item off our list. This entry and the next few that follow capture the essence of our visit. 

Leaving the RV park about 9 AM, we drove Texas Highway 118 south to the Big Bend National Park (NP) entrance station, showed our “old age” card, and immediately turned onto the rough graveled Old Maverick Road. The Old Maverick Road runs between Maverick Junction (park entrance) and Santa Elena Canyon. It is a 14-mile improved dirt road that passes along the Terlingua Creek badlands on the west side of the park. While usually passable for most vehicles, this road was rough and washboarded; the fourteen miles takes around an hour and a half to drive. Few opportunities to photograph presented themselves, though we did photograph a bird or two, a few cactus blooms, and some badlands panoramas.

As the drive continued a narrow opening in the sheer mountain cliff appeared, and became more prominent as we neared the mountain.

The drive ended at the Rio Grande River, the border between Mexico and the United States, at the entrance of Santa Elena Canyon.

Santa Elena Canyon is an iconic natural feature in Big Bend National Park.

While the best way to see the canyon is by raft or canoe, we opted to hike the short but steep 0.8 mile nature trail. The nature trail crosses Terlingua Creek, climbs several flights of ramps, stairs and switchbacks before descending into the very narrow canyon along the Rio Grande River.

This trail overlooked the Rio Grande River in many places.

At this point the canyon walls loom over 1,500 feet above the nature trail adjacent to the river.

Along the trail, wildflowers were abundant.

And, the cacti blooms were astonishingly beautiful; what a paradox.

Even a Checkered White butterfly made its presence known.

Let’s not forget about the well camouflaged Greater Roadrunner—beep, beep!