Santa Elena Canyon, Big Bend

This is the Rio Grande that divides the U.S. and Mexico. So once you cross this river you are in Mexico. The Rio Grande can be deep and swift flowing or shallow and gentle depending on the time of year and the amount of rain.

In March the river was shallow and for our canoe trip we would canoe upstream for a couple of miles, have lunch, take a hike and then canoe back downstream. The area had gotten just a little bit of rain the day before and we found out that going upstream would require some work and careful steering....good canoe skills would come in handy....and we didn't have them, ha!



















The scenery was incredible but by the time we stopped for lunch we were tired and wet. We discovered that when the water got deep the current wanted you to go the other way. So the trick was to stay in water deep enough to paddle in but not too deep. We also found out that one person getting out and pulling or pushing the canoe was easier than both people paddling their hearts out against the current. Unfortunately, if one person was out of the canoe pushing and the person in the canoe mistakenly steered into deep water the person outside of the canoe got extremely wet and somewhat upset, ha!

But after some time in the sun to dry out and a nice hike to cool off things improved and the boys started talking to each other again. The hike was still another 1/2 mile upstream. About half of the people on the trip decided that they had had enough and would wait for the rest of us at our lunch spot. Which was actually on the Mexican side of the river.