Kayak Camping Big Bend - 3 Days Living in a Canyon

The Rio Grande River tears through Texas's Chihuahuan Desert, carving sheer landscapes that dwarf the Eiffel Tower in scale. Its headwaters form in the high alpine of Colorado before flowing south thousands of miles to the Gulf of Mexico. Welcome to the Santa Elena Canyon. Our crew selected Santa Elena Canyon for a three-day mission. 1,500-foot vertical walls plunge directly into the river, landscapes I never could have imagined until seeing them in person. This is insane. Access is deep within Big Bend National Park, an 800,000-acre preserve containing rivers, desert, and the soaring Chisos Mountain Range. The desolate nature of this region makes Big Bend one of the least-visited national parks year after year. It's in the middle of nowhere, which ups the ante for trips like ours. The scenery was wild, and challenges were abundant, but we had a gnarly crew to take on everything this canyon would throw at us. What's up, brother? Good to see you. What's up, Chuck? I need to put on my bathing suit. It's time to roll, boys. First time on the canoe. We're getting everything all packed up right now, just about to push off from shore. Our original plan was to paddle downstream through the canyon, but once we arrived, an outfitter let us know that flows were too low and we'd have to do a boomerang trip instead. Here we go. Fighting the current upstream was tough, but it was the only way to do a trip at this point. All right, we're making very low miles per hour. This is a struggle. I'm not even joking. We haven't even probably covered a half mile, and we're already starting to get tired out. I was not foreseeing this. We should be in the canyon soon. It's going to be a hard press. I'm just curious to see what we're going to find in that canyon. Hopefully not more of this. So far, our trip has looked like a hike. That's the Santa Elena Canyon, guys. Videos definitely don't do this place justice. The scale is insane. We're talking like 1,500 foot cliffs on either side of the river. This is so crazy. Definitely the craziest place I've ever paddled. It may look like there's plenty of water in this canyon. As you can see with Chuck just cruising along, walking. We're not working with much. We just pulled over for a quick coffee break. Actually, I don't know if it's going to be quick. To be quite honest, we are all exhausted. It's almost 3 p.m. We've been working hard to go upstream, but we have this really cool cave behind us. So we're going to set up shop, take down a couple of espressos, and hopefully that'll energize us for the push up to Fern Canyon. Wasps were everywhere, and unfortunately, one got me right in the arm. Okay, onward we go. After getting lit up by a wasp, that sucked. And we're back to walking. We've honestly probably walked just as much as we paddled today. But what's more concerning than that are the clouds that are moving in. We've been hearing some thunder so far. Only a few sprinkles of rain, although there's no way to check forecasts right now because there's no cell signal. Literally in the middle of nowhere. We start seeing waterfalls in this canyon. It's time to skedaddle. Right now we're looking for camp that's nice and high, away from any fluctuation river level. We passed the lady who said there is a high campground just on up beyond Fern Canyon. The views are just insane. Look at Chris against that wall. Chris just found a place up here. It's fine. Sun screened up for the evening. Holy. That's pretty good. Doing a little field testing. We dropped our gear at camp and headed towards Fern Canyon, a place that was rumored to have crystal clear spring water. We found some clear water. It was a decent rock scramble, and definitely tested the grip of our river shoes on more than one occasion. This one's called the birth canal, for obvious reasons. Oh yeah. This spring water was the rejuvenation we all needed. All right, I'm going to set up camp right there. You'll notice there's some good elevation between here and the river, just in case there's a storm that's supposed to come through. So stay tuned and watch how that all goes down. Wind is definitely blowing in. It's actually getting pretty crazy out here. When I was setting up my tent, it flew away and ran into Chris's tent over there. I think something's blowing in. We don't know what though, because when you look up at the canyon walls, you can't see the horizon. So we got burgers, cheese, meal guy, corn on the cob. We were all just sitting around the campfire, kind of thinking to myself, like I hear the water a little bit more. We're going to go check and see where the water has moved, because it definitely feels like it's picked up. Oh my gosh, it is way up. We need to move the boats up, stat. We're going to keep playing it by ear, paying attention, because we are in the middle of nowhere, up a canyon, hours from cars, which are hours from civilization. A storm materialized upstream and the worst of it missed us. Now we could focus on coffee and planning the day's adventure. These wasps are out. These wasps are no joke. Either we kill them or they kill us. Oh yeah. Okay, I successfully poured a cup without getting stung, so that's an improvement over yesterday. The river is back down to a level where we are going to start more upriver exploration. Let's get after it. Hell yeah. River adventure day two. Oh, needle nose gar, that's pretty crazy. We went deeper into the canyon with lighter boats and renewed energy. Somehow this place got more and more beautiful with each passing stroke or step depending on where you were. The scale of this canyon just makes you feel so small. That is one upside to the treachery of hiking upriver, is that it is stunning here. This is hairy. You can see the scale, we got house-sized boulders in here. This is tricky, so many different currents. Oh, y'all are good. Oh man, good save. After negotiating the rock pile rapid, we turned our boats downstream and for the first time this trip, had current at our back. It was a glorious moment. For some reason, this section just speaks to me. I think it's got to be one of the prettiest of the entire canyon. It was so much easier to take in your surroundings while floating with the current. In this moment, I was finally appreciating everything. There we go. That was cool. Man, this is rocky. Yeah. Now that's a good time. That was pretty treacherous. Yeah. After another long day of paddling, we gathered around the fire to rest. For tonight, we would be admiring the Milky Way. Big Bend is known for its dark sky and stargazing. This was the most vivid night sky I'd ever seen. Bellissimo! What's the verdict? Amazing, very good. Is it good? Oh yeah. And of course, remote designs gear kept our essentials dry the entire trip. One last sip of coffee and it was time to load up the boats, head downstream, and watch the morning light bounce off the canyon walls. This next section of river, we have not paddled down yet. We've only come up. So the views are going to be completely different and we're excited to explore that. This is insane. Beautiful. It looks totally different going this way. And because we're not laboring upstream, you can actually take in the sights and appreciate it. Until next time, Santa Elena Canyon into the woods. Oh my gosh. Ow, it's so sharp. Oh my gosh. The 10-hour drive home provided ample time to reflect on all the wonderful memories we made and the tribulations we faced. That's so crazy. This was a grueling trip at times and I learned that even in the depths, you can still take a moment to appreciate nature's gifts. This desolate landscape giveth and taketh away, but the lads always make these adventures memorable. This was a challenging trip, but I was so happy with how things turned out. This is Mason. His stories are great and kept us engaged around the campfire. He also has the best mustache in town. When we took out, Chris gained cell signal and received news that he was the dad. He and his wife matched with a newborn baby girl and they were to adopt her immediately. Michael is Chris's brother and drove with him seven hours straight from the river to the hospital, covered in the weekend's finest stench. How special is that? This was Yul's first trip and he brought the endurance. He's also Charlie's boss, so Charlie made sure to stay on his best behavior most of the time. Chuck always brings the comedic relief on these trips. It helps so much when you're trudging upstream and things get tough. This trip is no short task, but it's something anybody can do. There's plenty of guides and resources to help you along the way. We're saying bye for now, but we'll be back many times again.