Santa Elena Canyon - Big Bend National Park

Santa Elena Canyon, Rio Grande

May 17, 2003

Funny thing about floating the Rio Grande river in Big Bend National Park during a drought. Sometimes you have to walk. As was the case this weekend. Little did we know that less than one month later the river would be running good enough to float from Lajitas to the Santa Elena take out, in one day. One of the guys with us this weekend was able to float that weekend too, and he took pictures. I'll ppost them at a later date.

As for this trip, we started and ended at the Santa Elena take out and we only went up the river, into the Santa Elena Canyon, about one mile. Prior to getting the kayaks out we hike the trail up the river to see if there would be enough water. We found that at the end of the trail we were able to get in the riverbed and walk up river even further. Still, we dicided to take our chances and get the boats out and start our float trip. As you can see by the picture below, some of the river had plenty of water, and some did not.

All-in-all, the trip was fun and worth the effort. Although I do recommend making the trip while the water level is up. You can check the Big Bend Daily Report for current river levels or call 432-477-2251.