The hike was slightly delayed because once everyone was out of the van and ready to head down the trail, Jeff called me back to the van. He explained that he locked the keys in the van. At this, I just turned around and walked off. Most days, I handle situations, such as this, in a carefree way but being 100 miles away from the nearest locksmith, lack of cell service, and to get back to the nearest ranger station was about 8 miles away, I just had to walk off. I walked over to the nearest tree and prayed. I wanted to cry but just didn't want to explain to the children why their Mommy was crying and why their Daddy was breaking into the van.
After getting God's perspective and regaining my composer, I walked back over to the van and asked Jeff how I could help him. He worked and worked the antenna down through the inside of the van door as I held the top of the door back. I stood there praying and my hand hurting from the door as Jeff just smiled and worked at getting the door unlocked. Within 15 minutes, Jeff had the door unlocked and all was well.
Oh, I am thankful that I didn't overreact at the beginning of this disturbance. Instead, I responded - I prayed- I helped. Now, Jeff and I are ready to enjoy our hike with our children.
We crossed the dried up Terlingua Creek which when full flows into the Rio Grande River.
We followed the trail up several flights of stairs and a couple of ramps. The climb was approximately 80 feet up then we slowly descended into the shady depths of the canyon before us.
We continued down the trail along the canyon wall as it hugged the Rio Grande River. Jeff and Hannah had a conversation about the dangers of getting to close to the edge. As you can tell from the photo, Hannah was picking her foot up to take another step closer.
After we all took a short break to rest and admire the massive walls of the cliffs that reached 1500 feet up in the air, we got back on the trail and continue into the canyon.
The left canyon wall in this photo is located in Mexico and the right canyon wall resides in the United States. The Rio Grande River divides the two countries. As we continued our hike on the US side, we rounded a corner and found ourselves in the middle of the canyon.
The children sat down on the huge rocks that were once part of the canyon walls, and made noise so that they could hear their echo. In this photo, they are howling like wolves. At this point in the trail, Hannah, Joshua, and Katie and to stay back with Jeff because the rocks were too large for their short unstable legs to climb over and around. However, Sierra lead Jacob, Andrew, Melissa and I over, under, and around the boulders down to the edge of the canyon wall.
These are some of the boulders we crawled over.
We had to go under some stacked boulders to get down to the rivers edge.
A view inside the "cave". I don't think I would crawl through here in the Summer. It looks like a great place for snakes to keep cool.
Our fearless leader, leading us into a rocky cave. Once in the "cave" (boulders stacked on top of each other), Sierra stepped in a pile of Javelina poop. Of course, this is what Jacob used to help us find our way back out once on the other side. Really, after walking around at the river's edge, I had trouble locating the correct boulder to cross over and go back under to return to the rest of my family. Jacob found where Sierra had wiped the poop off her shoe on the boulders. He said that we could follow the poop trail back out. ( Great idea Jacob!!)
The end of the trail meets the Santa Elena Canyon wall. We couldn't go any farther unless we had a boat. Therefore, we turned around and followed Jacob's way out.
Sierra took this picture as I came out of the "cave".
Melissa found her way back out of the cave. Once we all were back together, we started our 1 mile plus hike out of the canyon.
The view was spectacular coming out of the canyon. I hope one day that I can see this at sunset.
The rugged beauty of this canyon is breath-taking. We ended our hike by crossing back over Terlingua Creek and making our way back to the van which Jeff could unlock with the keys in his pocket.
Santa Elena Canyon is a "best-known natural feature" in Big Bend National Park and I am thankful for the privilege of discovering its dramatic views.
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