Paddling Boquillas Canyon
Our family recently paddled the Boquillas Canyon portion of the Rio Grande through Big Bend National Park. This is quite an excursion from our home in the Missouri Ozarks. For this 33 mile trip all paddlers must carry their own water, pack a fire pan, and pack out human waste (yep, you must carry your poop out). Paddlers must also register in the permit office within 24 hours of heading out. It was gorgeous though and worth the effort.
We were on the river for four days in mid-March. We saw only three other groups. All were university sponsored groups on Spring Break trips. It seemed like every plant in the canyon was blooming and the weather was great (eighties in the day/fifties at night). For this trip the put-in is Rio Grande Village Campground within the park. The take out is at a place called Heath Canyon Ranch. It’s basically the La Linda Bridge but is on private property called Heath Canyon Ranch.
Rio Grande Village is a great put-in with a little market for last minute items. However, Heath Canyon Ranch has not been highly hospitable the two times we’ve taken out there. This most recent time the road was rutted and there was a van stuck. We had to carry our two canoes and all of our gear around a quarter mile to our vehicle. Then the caretaker locked the gate on us after we had spoken to him and he knew we were loading. It took 3.5 hours of additional waiting to be let out of the property. Very frustrating, but I don’t want that to distract from the magnificence that is Boquillas Canyon.
Here is our film of Boquillas Canyon: