Santa Elena Canyon, three views

We arrived at Santa Elena Canyon late in the day and the parking lot was nearly full, but beginning to empty. We met several group heading out as we walked toward the river. By the time we were at the mouth of the canyon, it felt like we had the place nearly to ourselves.

The favored light – the one you see in the posters and postcards – hits the canyons in the morning. We were there late in the afternoon, which meant that the sun was beyond the canyon. The way was also overcast, but that worked in my favor by eliminating the harshness of backlighting.

Looking towards the canyon, especially from a distance, I kept wondering over the power of the mostly placid river to cut such a deep cut into the Sierra Ponce cliffs.

This final shot is a reverse shot, looking north out of the mouth of the canyon toward the U.S. side of the Rio Grande. The light was starting to fade by this time, especially in the shadow within the canyon.

Alvino House, Castolon, Big Bend

This is by the ranger station in the Castolon Historic District inside Big Bend National Park.

From the National Park Service website:

The Alvino House is the oldest intact adobe structure in Big Bend National Park. The building represents the everyday life of the many families who lived and farmed along the Rio Grande. This building was constructed around 1901 by Cipriano Hernandez, one of the Hispanic settlers who farmed near Castolon.

National Park Service

What makes the photo for me is that off in the distance, you can see the Sierra Ponce Mountains stretching across the horizon like a fortress wall with a notch that marks the location of the famed Santa Elena Canyon.

We didn’t go down to the Alvino House. It was already late afternoon and was trying to get to Santa Elena with enough time to hike through the canyon before the sun went down.

Shot on Cinestill BWXX, one of my favorite film stocks, Leica MP-4 and Summicron 35, perhaps not the ideal focal length for this shot but it was the only lens I took with me other than the one on the Voigtlander Perkeo II.

Moon setting over Pine Canyon

If I had a choice, I would have chosen a longer focal length than 35mm to make this image, but 35mm was all I had. To my eye, the moon looked a whole lot bigger, as it always seems to do compared to the images I capture.

As it is, you have to kind of work to spot the faint moon. Still, the image has a certain John Ford vibe that I like.

Century plant, not in the wild

I’ve covered quite a few miles traveling around Big Bend region, and the only agave plants I’ve seen in blood were both cultivated. I posted a while ago about the one I saw at the Chiso Basin Lodge. This one was in the garden of the Panther Junction Visitors Center, the main ranger station for Big Bend National Park.

The fact that his agave was planted besides a paved walkway didn’t take away from its grandeur. I like the look produced by the Catlabs 320 Pro developed in 510 Pyro.

Around Pine Canyon (mostly sotol, part II)

I don’t know if it was the time of year or the particular patch of the Chihuahuan Desert, but our campsite was surrounded by sotol and I couldn’t stop taking their picture.

Around Pine Canyon (mostly sotol, part I)

On this trip to Big Bend, I twisted my knee on a hike on the South Rim Trail, which limited my mobility for a couple of days. That left me to spend a day hobbling around our Pine Canyon campsite while my partner did a little exploring. Here’s what I came up with.

These were shot with my Leica M6 on the Catlabs 320 Pro, one of my favorite emulsion, especially when developed using 510 Pyro.

The Sotol Stands Alone

Ok, so not so alone. You can see plenty of others dotting the landscape in the background. This was in the Pine Canyon area of the national park. Sotol are plentiful in the Big Bend region, but they do give off a solitary feeling, especially with the wide-open sky as a backdrop. I love the flora of the Chihuahuan Desert.

Century Plant in Bloom

The agave is known as the century plant because the stalk that bears its flowers only emerges at the end of its life, which can be decades. This particular agave was just outside the lodge at Chiso Basin in Big Bend National Park. I don’t think I saw another one in bloom during our extensive wandering in the park.

The Yucca

A yucca is a common sight around the Big Bend region, but this particular sample along the River Road in Big Bend National Park caught our eye. It’s the same one seen in the post about the Sierra Mederas del Carmen a couple of weeks back, an image that fits the yucca into its environment.

I don’t know much about yuccas, and the ones I’ve noticed before are shorter. Last March, I was lucky enough to visit the Big Bend area when they were in full bloom thanks to a wet winter. I’m told that bloom was particularly magnificent and I was lucky to come across them.

Ocotillo Leaves, Big Bend

Last time I was in far west Texas, I fell in love with the thorny Ocotillo. It was March after a wet winter – In face it had snowed the day before we arrived at Big Bend Ranch State Park – and the desert was in bloom. Many of the ocotillo were topped with red flowers.

This time around, the ocotillo sported leaves – short stubby greenery that hugged the stems, hiding the thorns from a casual glance and giving them a fuzzy appearance from a distance. But I knew the thorns were there, having had intimate contact with them the last time around. Still, seeing another facet of this desert plant made me love them more.