The next day we woke early to go into Big Bend Park through Study Butte on Hwy 118.  The town, like the nearby mountain, was named for Will Study (pronounced “Stoody”), the manager of the Big Bend or Study Butte mercury (quicksilver) mine.  The walls of the old Study Butte store, an adobe structure still standing in the late 1980s, were scarred by bullet holes from the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s.  We drove into the park and headed to the south on Castolon Road toward Santa Elena Canyon.  It is only about 23 miles but was such a beautiful drive through desert and canyons it took us about 2 hours and we got lots of pictures.  We turned around at the old store and small museum at Castolon then went back up to the main road and over to Dagger Flats.  This is a dirt road 11 miles long and we actually saw the white yucca (Spanish Dagger) in bloom along with a lot of ocotillo.  A really unique event but they had about ½” rain the week before so everything was perfect for it.  Then we proceeded into the Chisos Basin area.  Thank goodness we had left the 5^thwheel back in Lajitas since that road has steep, sharp, narrow turns and we would have never made it all hooked up.  But it was simply beautiful and worth every minute.  More great pictures!

Maggie looking over the edge of Chisos Basin

We drove back into Lajitas and ate a late dinner at the resort in the Canderilla Cafe.  Nice place, Good service and Great food but a bit $$$, they say it is because they are so remote!