Santa Elena Canyon Trail
Easy–Mod
1.6 mi+80 ft~1.5 hr
A crossing of Terlingua Creek followed by a climb into the canyon mouth, ending where the river meets the towering walls. No permit.
Big Bend · Mile 01 · The Story
Desert, river, and a whole
mountain range in one park.
Big Bend takes its name from the sharp turn the Rio Grande makes here, and the park it contains is really three landscapes folded into one boundary: the Chihuahuan Desert, the Rio Grande itself, and the Chisos Mountains, the only mountain range entirely contained within a single national park. The Chisos rise cool and green out of the surrounding desert floor, dropping temperatures enough to make a summer afternoon there survivable in a way the lowlands aren't.
Santa Elena Canyon is the park's signature sight, where the river has cut a gorge with walls rising 1,500 feet straight up, Mexico on one side and the United States on the other, narrow enough in places that you could nearly touch both countries at once. A planned two-year closure of the Chisos Basin lodge and facilities, originally set to begin May 2026, was cancelled in April 2026 due to budget shortfalls, so the basin, its trails, and its campground remain open.
Come for the canyon and the river. Stay for the fact that this remote a park, this far from anywhere, has some of the darkest skies and quietest nights left in the country. Read the story, trust the live data above for what is open today, and when you leave, mark it visited.
From $37.32
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