Santa Elena Canyon Trail in Big Bend National Park, Texas

The Santa Elena Canyon Trail in Big Bend National Park is one of those trails that sticks with you. It sticks for multiple reasons: the natural beauty, the vastness of the canyon, the solitude, and the impacts of being born on different sides of the same river. This beautiful canyon trail is sure to be a favorite part of any trip to Big Bend National Park.

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Quick Info About Santa Elena Canyon Trail

SANTA ELENA CANYON TRAIL LENGTH: Most things, including the NPS website have it at 1.6 miles, but we clocked it right at 2 miles if you do all the different little spurs down to the river and climb around on the rocks like we did.
TRAIL DIFFICULTY: I would rate this as easy. There’s a slight incline, but it’s not enough that I would say it makes it even moderately easy.
ENTRANCE FEE FOR BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK: Big Bend has a $30 entrance fee for personal vehicles. However, if you ride a motorcycle, bicycle, or walk, it is slightly cheaper. You should know, if you visit multiple national parks in a year, the NPS does offer an annual national park pass. We get one every year and love it! This year we’re visiting 12 different parks and it’ll save us loads of money this year!
TRAIL HIGHLIGHTS: The steep canyon walls that tower overhead – one side is the US and the other is Mexico. Plus, there are some interpretive trail-style stops with crystals, plants, and more.
IS THIS TRAIL KID-FRIENDLY? I would say that this trail is kid-friendly. It has some areas that would have a bit of a drop-off, so you’d just have to be sure to keep an eye on them or hold their hand, but we each carried a kid on the trail, and it wasn’t bad at all!
DOG-FRIENDLY? It’s not. Dogs aren’t allowed on any of the trails in Big Bend National Park.
DO YOU LIKE TO RECORD YOUR NATIONAL PARK EXPERIENCES? I wrote a National Park Journal perfect for recording your adventures in each of our 63 U.S. National Parks.

Our Experience Hiking the Santa Elena Canyon Trail

We hiked to Santa Elena Canyon just before golden hour, so we could be deep in the canyon during the peak of golden hour. The trail initially leads you across a wash that feeds into the Rio Grande, but at certain times it can be completely dry or you may have a decent little creek crossing. When we were there, the water was pretty low. The trail takes you along the wash under some trees which is a cool opportunity to see a lot of the native plant life.

Along the trail, there are a handful of signs that talk about the different elements you can find along the canyon explaining more about the plant life, the mineral makeup of part of the canyon walls and some of the wildlife you might see along the way. The trail is relatively flat before going up a small series of switchbacks before going back down and leveling out again along the Rio Grande. The canyon walls reach up to 1500ft high and tower overhead. Golden hour illuminates the canyon walls, makes the Rio Grande light up and the soft, even lighting just adds to the beautiful of the canyon.

Since it’s an out and back canyon, you go back the same way you came, but this time, the views are of the Chisos Mountains that lie beyond the expanse of flatter desert lands between the mountains and the Rio Grande. The views are stunning and unforgettable.

What I love most about this trail is the poignant feeling it evokes. These steep canyon walls make for such a visual of how being born on one side of a river vs. the other changes a life. Also, how insignificant it all seems. Obviously, borders mean something. I get that. But especially in the last 8 or so years, the topic of “the border” seems like it’s constantly in the news, but a trip to the Rio Grande feels like a reminder of the humanity aspect of “the border”. The people who live just over a river, a river so low in places you can walk across without getting your knees wet, are looking for a better life. Perhaps there are ways that we can make a legal crossing easier or more affordable. I’m not an expert in politics and government, but I have seen a lot of places and met a lot of people. What I’ve learned in all these experiences is that we’re all humans and we all have things we can learn from each other.

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