Second Day - Santa Elena and the mule ears

Our second day took us close to the Mexican border, away from the mountains to Santa Elena Canyon 

 Santa Elena Canyon is an even more remote area, you can almost imagine how rough that land once was.

Our first destination that day:

 

As you can see it was quite windy there.

Tuff Canyon was next. It is a dry canyon, meaning no water at any time. 

watch your step or you will find yourself in one of those 

 

After driving around for a while it was time to have a little snack. What is better than a picnic with a view?

in the background: Mule Ear Canyon 

 Refreshed we decided to walk the Chimney trail, even though we knew we wouldn't make it to the end. It gets dark early and very quickly,and it was quite cold already, so we hiked until shortly before sunset.

Then we drove to a viewpoint and watched the sunset

Tomorrow we would visit Rio Grande Village ...