Santa Elena Canyon

Day 3
Today we did not want to get out of bed! We were freezing, and I was totally regretting the fact that my sleeping bag was only a thin layer of fleece. We didn't start our hike down the mountain until around 11 am, but at least we fit in some stretching. Luckily the hike down was mostly downhill, because by now, our feet were killing us. I wish we'd had more on that mountain, for we could have spaced out our hikes, meditated more, and visited with more people. We went down the mountain a different way, so that we would have covered every trail when we got to the bottom. This other side of the mountain was a lot more desert-like, partially because it had been burned down in the 1980's. I was pretty sad when we got to the bottom, and we actually felt pretty awful about taking off our backpacks; they'd been with us for what seemed like a week, squished into a couple of days. I wanted to stay on that mountain, and still want to be there this very second. We hung around the chisos basin for a little while, and ate and recuperated. Then, we were off to see the Santa Elena Canyon. It turned out to be about 30 miles from the mountain, so it was already about 4:30 by the time we got there. This photo was taken there at the canyon. The right side of the photo is Texas, and the left side is Mexico. The Rio Grande river divides the two. By the time we got back to the basin, we had decided that we would drive home that night, because if we had stayed, we would have climbed back up the mountain, slept, then right back down in the morning to go home. I drove all night (Pam had a migraine) and we made it back to Austin at around 5 am. Anyways, I love hiking, and the mountains, and nature, and doing everything in the "wild." We are already planning the next trip. Ergh I could go into more details but I feel like I've already written so much!