
Have you noticed the changes in the vegetation over the last couple of miles? You are beginning to enter a higher area of Big Bend - an area that is cooler and receives more precipitation than does the previous 25 miles you have driven. Because of these conditions, the desert is giving way to a greener and more moderate habitat called the Sotol-Grassland. This habitat is typically found between 3,500 to 5,000 feet (1,066 - 1,524 meters). The sotol plant is a crowded cluster of ribbonlike leaves up to three feet long, with sawtooth margins. In April and May, the plants produce a stalk 10 to 20 feet high which gives the sotol a second name - Desert Candle. The indigenous Americans baked the "heart" of the sotol for food. Today it would be more likely to find these baked hearts fermented and distilled into a tequila--like liquor, also called sotol.
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Itineraries across USA

Acadia

Arches National Park

Badlands

Big Bend

Biscayne

Black Canyon Of The Gunnison

Bryce Canyon

Canyonlands

Capitol Reef

Carlsbad Caverns

Channel Islands

Congaree

Crater Lake

Cuyahoga Valley

Death Valley

Dry Tortugas

Everglades

Gateway Arch

Glacier

Grand Canyon

Grand Teton

Great Basin

Great Smoky Mountains

Guadalupe Mountains

Haleakalā

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes

Hot Springs

Indiana Dunes

Isle Royale

Joshua Tree

Kenai Fjords

Kobuk Valley

Lassen Volcanic

Mammoth Cave

Mesa Verde

Mount Rainier

North Cascades

Olympic

Petrified Forest

Pinnacles

Rocky Mountain

Saguaro

Shenandoah

Theodore Roosevelt

Virgin Islands

Voyageurs

White Sands

Wind Cave

Yellowstone

Yosemite

Zion