Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge

On Sunday Volker and I took a trip. We drove along Military Hwy. towards McAllan, passing several historic markers and corn fields. The road is close to the Mexican border and sometimes you get a glimpse at the (ugly) fence between Mexico and the U.S. It is a very controversial topic!

Sorghum fields as far as the eye can seeI believe this tree is a mesquite

We stopped at one marker. There was a cannon. A forced stop, so to say ...

Later we saw a sign on the roadside - Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge. Something we needed to check out.

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For $3 per vehicle you can park your car, walk several trails and/or take a seven mile drive by car. We decided to do the round trip by car first. It was open until 4 o'clock only and we arrived after 2:15pm. There are several stops on the way from where you can walk. The first one is the overlook.

Pretty in pink welcomed us. My favorite vine: Bouganvilla (Bougainvillea)
Three towers to overlook the refuge. Finally something to climb on and up :)

Two of the towers are connected by a suspension bridge - great!!!!

Cementerio viejo, the old cementery

While Volker was very interested in the history, I fought off mosquitoes and other insects ....
For some reason they like me better .... eventually I took off!

This is the shortest distance to Mexico in the park,
only the Rio Grande separates the two states. ... I didn't get that far ;)

Santa Ana is a very interesting place, especially in winter and spring. It's a habitat for hundreds of birds and butterflies. Don't go there on a hot day (we had 100°F+). You probably will regret it. We did ... and got eaten by insects, despite insect repellent! Besides, we didn't see anything bigger than a lizard and a tiny snake that day. But, there will be a next time - and then we will be prepared. Cannot wait to see a bobcat :)