Hiking Big Bend National Park by Laurence Parent

Author:Laurence Parent
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Falcon Guides
Published: 2022-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

the ground at its foot. From here you have a sweeping view of the Maderas del Carmen and Sierra del Carmen in Mexico, the Dead Horse Mountains to the northeast on the horizon, and the Chisos Mountains to the north.

If you go right at this fork, the trail winds up a small drainage to a saddle, contours along the edge of another drainage back to the northwest, and then climbs and follows a high ridge south to the rim of Mariscal Canyon. Here it joins the Mariscal Rim Trail. The views along this ridge are spectacular. You can see Cerro Castellan, Santa Elena Canyon, all of the Chisos Mountains, and dramatic views of Mexico.

Alternatively, the left branch leads down a steep canyon into Cross Canyon. At the beginning of the descent, part of the southern wall of Mariscal Canyon is clearly visible. Again, following the cairns is critical as you descend toward the Rio Grande. The trail leads along the side of one canyon before it crosses a saddle and drops into another canyon on the right. The trail keeps heading toward the river as it crosses a few small washes and then follows a ridge along a deepening canyon. It drops steeply toward the river, providing good views of the river and the canyon mouth. When you finally reach the bedrock floor of Cross Canyon, you must cross it and climb the hill in front of you, hiking above and behind two rock outcrops. It is tempting to follow the canyon floor downstream, but this will lead you to the top of an impassable pour-off more than 50 feet high, from where you can see your destination—the Rio Grande—without being able to reach it. Past the rock outcrops, the trail traverses a ridge and then heads west toward the Cross Canyon drainage and ends at the river.

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