2003-11-07 Lost Mine and The Window 2003-11-08 Pine Canyon and Ernst Tinaja 2003-11-09 Cattail Canyon 2004-11-04 The Journey 2004-11-05 Casa Grande and Lost Mine 2004-11-06 Cattail Canyon 2004-11-07 Santa Elena Canyon and Cattail Falls 2005-06-01 Chisos Mountain Lodge 2005-06-02 Emory Peak 2005-06-03 Desert Views 2005-06-04 The Window at Sunset 2005-11-03 Cattail Canyon 2005-11-04 South Rim 2005-11-05 Santa Elena Canyon by Canoe 2005-11-06 Santa Elena Canyon by Canoe 2002-11-08 Emory Peak and South Rim 2002-11-09 Cattail Falls and Santa Elena Canyon 2002-11-09 Terlingua and Lajitas 2002-11-10 Old Ore Road and Hot Springs 2002-11-10 The Window at Sunset

Day 4 - Sunday, November 6, 2005

Today, we would run the entire length of Santa Elena Canyon.  But the first order of business was a morning hike up to the canyon rim, which is relatively easy to access from the American side of the mesa.  After the requisite photo taking and staring dumbfounded at the view, we returned to the beach to strike camp, make our peace with the groover, and try our best to remember how all of our gear fit into the boats.

Will and I had been getting the hang of maneuvering the canoe, more or less, but today we had some Class 2 rapids to contend with in the canyon.  Our boat, which was heavy to begin with, was loaded down with well over a quarter ton of gear and people, so it was not the most maneuverable thing in the world.  And Santa Elena Canyon doesn't really have any straight-aways.  It's one sharp bend after another, and at each bend, the river wants to drive you right into the wall.  But Kevin is a good teacher, and after we got a few basic strokes down, we were mostly able to keep from killing ourselves.

A few miles into the canyon, we ran into Rockslide Rapid (AKA "The Labyrinth"), which is a 200-foot-high rock fall from the Mexican side of the canyon that creates a brief but challenging Class III rapid.  I opted to let Kevin steer our boat through the rapid while I climbed over the rock slide-- I'm not sure which was more challenging, in retrospect.

The river offered us little respite during the afternoon, as it threw obstacles at us in rapid succession (pun intended.)  But every moment that we weren't paddling was spent looking straight up in awe, as the waning light drew larger-than-life shadow puppets on the quarter-mile walls of cretaceous limestone.  We rounded the last bend and saw the familiar mouth of the canyon and the distant Chisos beyond, then we saw a camera flash.  Some members of our group had decided to hike the Santa Elena Canyon trail, and they just happened to be there at the right moment to act as our welcoming party.  We pulled out of the river at around 4 PM, but it took several hours to shuttle Kevin's RV back around from Lajitas, load up, and make the hour-long drive back to camp.  Fortunately, we were back in time for the traditional fried turkey dinner, dutch oven cobbler, and other amenities.