I do not know when I will get to return to Big Bend
, but digging through the closet I found some old photos for one more contribution. This trip was circa 1990 or 1991, I think. At any rate, this is the way I remember it.
The first photo is of the Sentinel which guards the entrance to Santa Elena Canyon.
The river level was reasonable when we put in at Lajitas, I think it was about 4 ft. We camped just above the entrance rapids and the next morning the river had made a significant rise.
As we entered the canyon we were in sheer awe of the vertical cliff walls.
As we approached the Rock Slide we beached on the Mexico side to scout and pick a path through the boulder mine field. I must say the boulders are MUCH bigger at water level than they look from the perch of the next few photos.
While we were scouting we noticed another party across the river working there way to a small capsized raft.
The next photo shows them having retrieved the raft and investigating the damage. No signs of the occupants that we could tell, I do not know if they were rescued by the investigating party or floated out in their life preservers. We never caught up to the other raft so I guess we will never know.
We chose our route and returned to the raft to continue downstream. One last photo as we entered the rock slide.
