After the February 2007 Big Bend Ranch State Park event, different people kept talking about the wonders of the Big Bend region.  Among others, Chase Snodgrass mentioned Capote Falls, the highest falls in Texas, and Wes Hays was wondering about a railroad tunnel he had heard about.  Both of these things are near the village of Valentine. Take a good look at the photo of Valentine above.  Does it look like a place with tunnels and tall waterfalls? Well the trick is that they are over in the Rio Grande Rift, a few miles west.

 

First up was to locate Wes' railroad tunnel, allegedly built by Chinese workers.  Where the tunnel is there seems to be a drainage that goes all the way through the basalt but some of the twists are too tight for a train so there are a couple of trenches and the short tunnel on the east end.

 

West tunnel entrance

 

East tunnel entrance

 

 

Next I flew down the Rio Grande to Capote Falls.  There are a bunch of airstrips through here. There are a lot of marginal strips but some that look very nice.  It makes me wonder if it takes a long time to drive anywhere from this remote area. Chase Snodgrass was flying today also and I went by Candeleria to see if Chase or his ground support was there. They were not but I was able to briefly make radio contact with him.  I believe he said he was near the tunnel at the time.

 

Columnar basalt

 

Well, Chase's father-in-law still holds the aerial photography prize for Capote falls, but I have several excuses.  First, I didn't know there was going to be a thousand foot (guess) cliff just to the southeast.  Second, it was bumpy.  Third, I was on the wrong side of the airplane.  Fourth, Mrs. Garmin was yelling in my ears the whole time in more and more urgent tones, TERRAIN!  Sometimes I just wish she would cool it and let me concentrate. A good photo from the ground is at http://spiderjohnson.com/Gallery/capotefalls.html.

 

 

West side of Guadalupe Peak 8,749 feet.  Just a bit of snow showing.