Kayaking the Santa Elena Canyon and counting animals in Big Bend

 

Big Bend National Park has three main sections to explore. We've already visited the Chisos Mountain Basin, and the Rio Grande Village section. So this day we made the drive on the third spur road that terminates at Santa Elena Canyon. But we had a couple stops to make on the way. One of those was at the Homer Wilson Ranch. The Wilson family made their home here, where they raised thousands of sheep and goats on this desert ranch. We thought that the flimsy ocotillo cactus were worthless, but we see that they used them for corrals here at the Wilson Ranch.

While the half-mile walk to the ranch house is officially called the Homer Wilson Ranch Trail, we have unofficially renamed it the Lizard Trail. We must have been the first hikers this morning, because every lizard came out to see us. The crazy thing is that they stopped and stared and let us take their pictures!

The ranch house where the family lived is still standing, and we saw that those flimsy ocotillo were put to good use in the roof of the house as well.

If you happen to be counting, we are now on the third lizard that stopped to stare at us. 

We don't know why these lizards let us get so close, but we could take pictures that showed the detail of their colorful markings. That is another of God's wonders that He decorates desert lizards with such amazing color and design.

From the back porch of the house, the family had a great view of the mountains of Big Bend. But this picture also shows that they were not alone out here. Judging from the claw and teeth marks, it looks like a bear had recently done some remodeling out here.

After we looked around at the ranch, we walked back up the trail to the pickup. This is only a one-mile hike, so we were amazed at the number of lizards we saw.

We were more amazed at the number of lizards that stopped and posed for us.

Perhaps they were soaking up the early-morning sunshine after a cool night in the desert. But we are far more accustomed to seeing the blur of a lizard running across our path and hiding, rather than so many lizards stopping for us to admire them.

Usually this short hike wouldn't take us very long. But this morning we spent a lot of time on this lizard trail.

If you're counting, that is eight different lizards on the newly renamed Lizard Trail down to the Homer Wilson Ranch.

Our next stop was the Castolon visitor center to get some best advice on kayaking through the Santa Elena Canyon. This was one of the highlights of our trip here eight years ago, and we were hoping to do it again. But we have been watching the Rio Grande River throughout the park, noticing that it is very low. The ranger here repeated that same opinion, that the water level is unusually low. They haven't had rain here in a very long time. A ranger friend had reported that a float on the Rio Grande right now was more like a kayak-assisted hike because you have to get out and carry your boat so often. But we got our back-country river permit and decided to drive down to the head of the canyon and look at the situation for ourselves.

Even though the water level was low, we decided that it was worth the effort to give it a try. We inflated our kayak and carried it down the quarter-mile trail and launched. Here we go!

It didn't take long to feel enveloped by those tall cliffs that rose up over our heads.

Hikers accompanied us for the first mile, as there is a bit of a ledge on the right hand side of the canyon. But after that, the walls go straight up at the water edge. We were actually paddling upstream at this time, but the water was so calm that it perfectly reflected the canyon walls. It's hard to tell where the rock stopped and the water started.

We had smooth sailing for the first 1.5 mile. Then we got to a spot where the water was so shallow that the bottom of the boat hung up on the rocks. Mark got out and pulled us to deeper water so we could continue.

You can see the rocks through the water as we took this picture upriver . . .

and back down the river.

We would end up having to portage through low water four different times. But let's look on the bright side--that gave us a chance to stretch our legs and cool them off in the water of the Rio Grande River. It was another hot day here in Big Bend.

Santa Elena Canyon continues for eight miles, with canyon walls that stretch up to 1,500 feet in height.

We didn't see much wildlife on this trip, so Denisa had to snap a picture of this turtle before he slid into the water. We would have liked to take a picture of a canyon wren, but those little brown birds are hard to see. We remembered the song of the canyon wren from our last kayak trip through this canyon, and we were blessed with it again today. The canyon wren has a loud song of descending fading notes that will always bring back fond memories of the Santa Elena Canyon to us.

It's time to carry the boat again, and this time Denisa stayed in it. She took this picture from her perch on the kayak seat. What a strong man she has for a wandering partner!

The current got stronger in narrow parts of the canyon, and it was almost impossible to row against it when our paddles were hitting the rocks. So it was time for the third portage of the trip.

After the fourth portage, we decided it was time to head back down river.

But while we're out of the boat, why don't we walk around for a while?

We wondered what was around that next curve in the canyon. Turns out that it's . . . more canyon

It's hard to show how tall these walls are in a picture from the kayak. But a picture with Mark standing at the bottom gives this canyon a little scale of size.

We have wandered into another of God's wonders today, and experienced another highlight of Big Bend National Park.

We went almost four miles into the canyon before we decided to head back. The return trip was easier because we could ride through the riffles instead of trying to row against them.

The sun was peeking over the top of this canyon wall with a big amphitheater carved into it.

During our kayak trip we saw three other people paddling against the current to do a boomerang trip like us. We out-distanced the rest of them. This couple was at a portage spot, and you can barely see them at the bottom of the tall canyon wall.

We also met two different groups of boaters that had guides and rental canoes. They were making a one-way trip through the canyon because their rental company dropped them off and picked them up. That's an expensive option when compared to our free trip today.

This trip doesn't come without some preparation. We had to get a permit at the ranger station, where we had to sign a waiver and comply with their rules. We were required to wear floatation devices, and have an extra one on board. It's a good thing that we have our snorkeling life jackets, in addition to the ones we use with the kayak. We also have to have an extra oar, but our two-piece kayak paddles count for that. We had to take a copy of the permit with us, and left this blue portion of the permit in our vehicle in the parking lot. It's the same permit used for back-country hikers. When a ranger finds a car left at a trail head or the river overnight, they know where to start looking for the lost hikers or boaters. The boater picture is circled on ours since we were on the water.

We had been on the water for over three hours when we saw the canyon walls open up again. We were back to our put-in spot. What a great paddle we had on this beautiful blue-sky day!

After putting the boat away, we headed back down the road with a couple more planned stops. One was to the Mule Ear View Point.

As you can tell, those twin mountains make a good set of mule ears . . .

or devil's horns--depending on the angle.

The sun was getting low in the sky when we stopped in for our last hike of the day at Burro Mesa.

This 1.2-mile hike wouldn't take long if we didn't stop to take too many pictures of the cactus.

Sure enough, we were at the end of the trail very soon. Way over Mark's head is the pour-off--where the water will drain from the creek above if it ever rains here again.

As we walked back towards the pickup, we started hearing the tinkling of little rocks falling down the side of the canyon walls beside us.

We looked above us to see a herd of Barbary Sheep moving across the face of that steep wall.

This mother was herding three lambs, who are required to develop their sure-footed skills very early.

That was fun! We had been watching the sheep on our left, when we saw movement at the top of the cliff on our right.

Lit up in the setting sun was another sheep, perched at the edge of that tall cliff.

It's a long ways down from there!

Instead of hearing falling rocks, this time we heard the bleating of the sheep. This group seemed to be calling to the group on the other side of the canyon.

We had this magical place all to ourselves at the end of this magical day. We were still counting animals, and we spotted over twenty adult sheep plus many lambs. As we were leaving, we saw movement again at the top of another rock wall. Do you see the bump towards the right side of the picture?

That would be another mother and baby taking in the view from the top.

We saw the two of them as they moved along the top of the ridge.

Mom was surveying the landscape, but she decided that the next rock looked better.

We caught her in mid-leap as she made the jump to the next rock ledge.

These Barbary Sheep were imported into the United States many years ago, and they are doing well in their new Texas home. Also called Aoudads, they are taking over some of the habitat of the native big horn sheep. They are becoming a bit of a nuisance, but we were still thrilled that we got to see them this evening.

Watching the little lamb trying to keep up with the sure-footed mother was great fun too.

We can add two more to our count of Big Bend animals today. We can also add up the miles of exercise for the day. Between kayaking and hiking, we've clocked in 10.4 miles this day. 

The two aoudads were still watching us from their perch high above when we decided we needed to start that long drive back to the motor home before it got dark. But wait! We spotted another lizard, just waiting for us to take its picture. Add another lizard to the animal count for the day! We are blessed!