Santa Elena Canyon Big Bend National Park

... . So we signed up for a rafting trip to get an up close experience of the water. Our trip ended up being through Santa Elena canyon, a beautiful section of the river with canyon walls 1500 feet high and (normally) a few exciting rapids. But with such ...

On our way in to Alpine, TX (a common jumping off point for Big Bend National Park) we encountered what could be the first real threat to our plans for this part of the trip: snow! As we drove into town, the temperature was around -3°C and in response ...

... cliffs on the Mexican side, much of which was carved out by the river.   We then proceeded along to the “Santa Elena Canyon Trail” which was a short hike down to the Rio Grande, and a closer look at the canyon carved through the ...

... we could see well enough.  That night, we could hear coyotes howling very close to the RV. On Friday, we hiked the Santa Elena Canyon.  It is a .8 mile hike, but fairly steep going up, and steep part way on the descent.  It takes you to ...

... which was a gap between mountains showing the desert beyond. That was beautiful and then we headed off to the Rio Grande River to Santa Elena Canyon. This took over an hour or so and when we got there it was obvious how little rain Texas has had in the ...