It was a cool morning, so we took our time getting to the river. We made stops at the abandoned Sam Nail Ranch, and stopped to take pictures at the Sotol Vista. Sotol look like the yucca (or soapweed) plants that we have in Oklahoma, but on steroids. Some of them are blooming now, and their blooms can weigh 70 pounds. We have seen their woody stalks used for fencing.
We also took the Burro Mesa Pouroff trail. This is a beautiful area and it is hard to picture how big it is. Here's a "Where's Waldo" game for you. Can you find Denisa in her bright turquoise blouse in the middle of all those sizable hills.
We also tried to get an idea of the size of the mountain next to this hike. So Mark hiked through the thorns and bush to stand a third of the way up its slope. He's that tiny blue speck that we had to circle in red so he would be visible. Denisa thinks that this is a picture of one rock-hard hunk in the middle of one big hunk of rock!
Just so you know, he tore one of his favorite pairs of hiking pants on that off-trail scramble to get in that picture. He also had several spots of blood on those pants where the brambles got through the material and poked him. We truly do shed blood and sweat for the pictures on this blog!
By the afternoon it was warm enough to get in the water, so we inflated the kayak at the boat ramp for the highlight of the day--the Santa Elena canyon. We chose the boat ramp a mile downstream from the canyon because we didn't have to carry the boat as far to get it in the water. This meant an additional mile of paddling upstream, but we are obviously experienced kayakers that could handle that. Bad decision! Next time we will carry the boat and enter at the mouth of the canyon. We had a tough time and had to portage several times in that mile. There was a group of first-time canoers that started the same time and place that we did, and they never made it past the first bend in the river going upstream.
But we prevailed against the current and the shallow areas where we were forced to walk up-stream. The ranger had called this "canoe assisted hiking" and we got quite good at it. We were certainly glad to get our first glimpse of the slot canyon that the river eventually flows into.
After that mile we got to our destination, the beach at the mouth of the Santa Elena canyon. Stunning!
It's here that the Rio Grande River dips into the canyon that it has carved over thousands of years. Lucky kayakers like us are surrounded by 1500 foot canyon walls on both sides as we enter the canyons!
We were still paddling upstream, but the water was calmer in the canyon. Instead of the blue/green clear water from yesterday, we had water that resembled chocolate milk today. There have been rains up-river that increased the flow and muddied the water.
That chocolate milk water meant that we couldn't see the rocks below, so we didn't know where the deepest channels were. That made navigating upstream and downstream more challenging.
Actually, Mark got much more experience with the rocks, as he pulled us through some of the worst rapids of the day while Denisa stayed in the kayak. That allowed for some boat pictures as Mark was still standing in the water for these.
It was tiring (especially for Mark) but the pay-off was superb views up and down the river! We wish we had counted the number of times we exclaimed, "Wow! This is so awesome!" on our journey on the river today.
We paddled and pulled ourselves another two miles up the canyon until we got to the turn-around spot at fern canyon. We were ready for a nice leisurely float back to the car!
We met up with a group of college students that were floating down river. As they paddled ahead of us, it was good to use their canoes to get some scale of the size of the canyon wall. You can see the profile of their two canoes at the bottom of that majestic cliff.
The sun was lowering in the sky as we exited the canyon, lighting up one side of the canyon walls and mirroring their image in the water. It was a very beautiful day!
We have had our sea eagle kayak for years, and it has served us well. We have toted it all over the state of Oklahoma, and even over the country on vacations. We intend to give it a hard workout now that we are traveling full-time. This trip down this canyon would have cost us $300 if we used the local outfitter to provide equipment and transportation. But it was a free day for us since we had our own boat. So the kayak paid for itself today! Of course, we might have paid for part of the journey in our labor to paddle and pull up-river.
We drove back to the motorhome on one of the maintained dirt roads inside the national park. We had the road to ourselves as the setting sun lit up some of the mountain groups we passed. At times the faraway mountains looked purple in the setting sun,
while another group of foothills closer to us glowed like gold in the setting light.
We were blessed with another beautiful day with a beautiful sunset at the end. We feel like we have really wandered through His wonders here at Big Bend!
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