Santa Elena Canyon, Big Bend National Park, TX, 10/19/2014

Tony Crocker

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Staff member
We started our Big Bend NP day at Santa Elena Canyon, where the Rio Grande flows through a gorge with walls as high as 1,500 feet. We got there about 10:30AM with temps only in the upper 70’s. View near trailhead:
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The trail soon crosses Terlingua Creek, which is a mud flat as shown here from above where it flows into the Rio Grande.
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The trail is impassable when Terlingua Creek has a flash flood. But overall it’s a plus if you’re in Big Bend when the Rio Grande has high water. In that case, you can do a 21-mile river trip with a class IV rapid through Santa Elena Canyon. We missed this by a week. Usually it takes 2 days to float that distance.

The trail then climbs a few switchbacks cut into the cliff.
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Prickly pear cacti grow out of the Cliffside.
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Prickly pear thrive everywhere in Big Bend, from the river here at 2,100 feet to over 7,000 feet in the Chisos Mountains.

Then the trail descends into Santa Elena Canyon.
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Ocotillo plant next to the trail with view down the Rio Grande below the canyon.
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We finally reach the river.
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Trail ends here:
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The sheer cliffs on the Mexico side have some overhangs.
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I wonder if any rock climbers have scaled these.

On the way back, the trail skirts this massive rockfall.
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Here’s Liz by the rockfall.
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The picture barely shows its full height and only about half its depth. We have only seen rockfalls this big before in Zion.

We were on our way by 11:30 after about an hour here. There were less than 10 cars at the trailhead despite it being Saturday and a less than 1 mile trail one way into quite dramatic scenery. Big Bend is a long way from anywhere.
 
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