A day on the Rio Grande

​Yesterday was our last day in the Big Bend area and we spent it on the river. We did what they call a boomerang trip into St. Elena canyon – paddling upstream into the canyon in the morning, stopping for lunch, and then paddling downstream back to the put in in the afternoon. The paddling was generally easy, although there were some challenges going upstream. There were places where the river narrowed and the current was challenging, and other places where it was so shallow that we had to get out of the kayaks and drag them over the gravel bars. 
 
The canyon itself is impressive. It’s a cleft in an otherwise impassable barrier where the river has carved 1500 foot walls as it meanders through the rock. 
 
We ate our lunch on the Mexico side, but no one noticed. Also we learned that below El Paso (which uses all the river's water), the Rio Grande runs dry. All the water down here comes from the Rio Conchos in (and controlled by) Mexico. Gracias!

​And there was a roadrunner at breakfast. The park puts an image of one on the signs for roadside exhibits but neither that nor Looney Tunes prepared us for how small they are.