We drove 128 miles today, and that was entirely inside the park boundaries. We visited Catalon, which is an abandoned village where cotton farming once took place, to take advantage of the hot weather and the nearby Rio Grande River that was used for irrigation.
We drove on to Santa Elena Canyon, where we walked a trail. The initial part of the trail was flooded and required that we use our flip flops and walking sticks. The trail rises to a magnificent view of the canyon, and then slowly descends back until we are at water’s edge of the Rio Grande, but deep inside the canyon.
On our way back we did the Chimeys trail, which is a 4.8 mile trail that brings us to natural volcanic chimneys which feature petroglyphic writings. A Park Ranger had misled Claudette that the chimneys themselves were only about half a mile along a longer trail, and so we decided to go there, as Claudette was very excited to see petroglyphs. In the end, it was the distance marked in the park literature, and it took us two hours and a bit to do the return journey, which ended just as the sun was setting