Santa Elena Canyon
Interesting facts
- In 1899 USGS geologist Robert T. Hill led a six-man boat expedition through the Rio Grande canyons, then among the least-known places in the United States.
- Inside Santa Elena, Hill's party had to drag their boats over the boulder choke of the Rock Slide, taking three days to cover about seven miles.
- The Rock Slide formed when part of the canyon wall collapsed, filling the river with boulders the size of houses; today it is rated a Class IV rapid.
- The canyon splits two limestone tablelands: the Mesa de Anguila on the Texas side and the Sierra Ponce on the Mexican side.
- Under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the border follows the deepest channel of the river as it ran in 1848, not as it runs today.
- The United States urged Mexico from the 1930s to protect its side as a counterpart to Big Bend, but the Mexican reserve was created only in 1994.
- The Mexican protected area covers about 277,000 hectares, and its arrowheads, mortars and rock paintings show human presence since Paleo-Indian times.
- Black bears, beavers, golden eagles and peregrine falcons are among the protected species recorded on the Mexican side of the canyon.
Why it is worth it
The Rio Grande, a modest river in a desert plain, suddenly vanishes into a slit in a wall of rock: at Santa Elena Canyon, sheer limestone cliffs rise up to 1,500 feet (about 450 m) from the water, and the river runs between them for some 8 miles (13 km). The canyon is one of the great gorges of Big Bend National Park in Texas, and it is also an international boundary – the deepest channel of the river divides the United States on the north bank from Mexico on the south, where the Cañón de Santa Elena Flora and Fauna Protection Area protects the opposite wall.
Across the Big Bend region, the Rio Grande has sliced through three uplifts made mostly of limestone, carving canyons with nearly vertical walls; Santa Elena, Mariscal and Boquillas are the best known, and Santa Elena has the tallest cliffs of all. The limestones date largely from the Cretaceous period, and one of the local formations is named the Santa Elena Limestone. The river reached the Big Bend country roughly two million years ago, and the canyons record the erosion and downcutting that followed. Inside the gorge, about 2 miles from the upstream entrance, lies a rapid known as the Rock Slide.
From the downstream mouth, a short trail of about 1.6 miles round trip crosses Terlingua Creek and climbs paved steps to a viewpoint before descending to the water's edge, continuing into the canyon until the walls close in on the river. River trips through the canyon usually start upstream at Lajitas, meandering through open desert and riparian woodland before entering the canyon proper. The wider country around is the Chihuahuan Desert, and the river corridor forms a thin band of green across it.
Getting there
Santa Elena Canyon lies at the end of the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, a paved road of about 30 miles that runs through the western part of Big Bend National Park past the Castolon Historic District. The nearest Mexican town in a straight line is Manuel Ojinaga, about 90 km away, but there is no border crossing at the canyon; on the US side the nearest city listed is Del Rio, about 265 km away in a straight line. The nearest US airport is Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF), about 336 km away.
On these lists
29.16547, -103.61212per Wikidata