Today we explored West Big Bend National Park. We took the Maverick Road (unimproved gravel) to Santa Elena Canyon. The trail at the canyon was a little bit of a climb at the start of but really beautiful once you get to the end. It is a very dramatic canyon carved by the Rio Grande River. Afterwards we went to Castalon where there is a visitor center and store. We ate lunch on the picnic tables and afterwards we went to Chisos Basin camping area. Chisos Basin is a really beautiful area surrounded by mountains. Chisos Basin is higher altitude and has more vegetation including some pine trees. Some of the longer hiking trails start here. The lost mine trail looked popular based on the parking log. We didn’t do any trails at this time. We looked for the Window View Trail but didn’t find it. We left Chisos Basin and went to Panther Junction. Nothing really there and we were tired so we turned around and headed back to Lajitas. We had dinner at the Lajitas Resort restaurant called Candelilla Cafe. A very nice place and the burger was excellent.