After breakfast Friday the group went back into Big Bend National Park to explore Santa Elena Canyon and a couple of notable overlooks along the way. Getting into the park was much easier since everyone had 7-day passes.

The canyon is about 40 miles from the park entrance. The road to it has lots of twists and turns as it goes over a range of mountains and down to the river bank.

The canyon is a short walk from the parking area.

A few people waded across the Rio Grande to set foot in Mexico. We just enjoyed the view.

On the way back we stopped to look at Tuff Canyon and the Mule Ears. (The Mule Ears are the peaks you see in the distance in the picture below-right.)

Beth took a few pictures of flowers at various places we stopped. A few different kinds of cactus were in bloom at various places in the park.

The group spent the evening on the roof-top patio eating dinner and listening to the music of a local ensemble.

The sky to the South enhanced the evening with a beautiful sunset.

After saying our good-byes we retired to our hotel and packed for an early departure.

Saturday –

Saturday morning we departed at 6 a.m. We Stopped for breakfast in Alpine, TX, and continued the 225-mile trek to the Harley dealer in Odessa, TX. Beth’s bike was ready. Hooray!! The temperature was 54 degrees in the morning. By the time we reached the outskirts of San Antonio around 6 pm, the temperature was 94 degrees.

Hotel art usually isn’t worthy of a second glance. That is why we didn’t notice the picture above the bed in our hotel room tonight. but once Beth took notice of it, we had to photograph it and include it here.

Tomorrow we head for Mandeville, LA.