Skip to main content
  The Houston Canoe Club
Share our Joy of Paddling!








P.O. Box 925516
Houston, Texas
77292-5516



The Houston Canoe Club 

is a Paddlesports Risk Management Club

Sign the Waiver
HCC


Add Me To Your Mailing List
Homenl-2022-06 8 Rio Grande


Rio Grande in Big Bend- Now and Then
April 2022
by John Bartos

We visited Big Bend in April 2022 after an absence of many years.  In the 80’s and 90’s we enjoyed a few river trips in Santa Elena and Boquillas Canyons, mostly with HCC members.

 

I am not sure the exact gage levels when we did those trips back then, but on our recent visit the gage at Rio Grande Village was under 2 ft.  What does that mean?  Not enough water for a trip. No whitewater.  We talked to a guide who was helping clients at the Santa Elena take-out.  They are paddling upstream from there and some are camping in Fern Canyon. He told us that nobody is paddling from Lajitas down through Santa Elena like we used to do. One outfitters’ website states that the Rio Grande has been very low for the last 20 years. Outfitters used to use rafts, but no more.

 

We took a boat over to Boquillas, Mexico for lunch, but we could have easily walked across without getting our knees wet.  The old Santa Elena takeout and parking lot isn’t even used. You really can’t get there with a boat. The Lajitas put-in is just a few yards wide and a foot deep. There was no discernable flow. NWS river levels can be found here: NOAA - National Weather Service - Water

 

We know that the entire western U.S. and northern Mexico has been in a prolonged drought, but the lack of water in the Rio Grande still was shocking.

 

Here are some photos showing the river back in the day and now.

 

image001
Figure 1 Santa Elena 1998


image003

Figure 2 Santa Elena April 2022



image005

Figure 3 Boquillas 1990



image007

Figure 4 Boquillas 2022



image009

Figure 5 Lajitas put-in now

Click here for story from The Big Bend Sentinel. 





The author, John Bartos