[TV static]
- MALE NARRATOR: It was 30 years ago that the
"Texas Parks & Wildlife" television series,
originally known as "Made in Texas" got its start.
Kathryn Palmer is one of the more than 30 producers,
photographers, writers and editors who have contributed
to the show since its first broadcast in 1985.
- I'm Kathryn Palmer, and I was a producer here at
Texas Parks and Wildlife for about five years.
Back in 1992 I had the opportunity to go the
trip of a lifetime.
Thanks to Big Bend River Tours, I got to go on a rafting trip
down the Rio Grande River through the Santa Elena Canyon.
Besides the awe inspiring scenery, 1,500 foot cliffs,
even a Class 4 rapids, the people that I met were
really wonderful.
There was a poet.
There was an art gallery owner from New York,
and then the river guides were so experienced.
So it's a trip that I will never forget.
[music]
- NARRATOR: The desolation of the Chihuahuan Desert
is bisected by a muddy brown river.
The Rio Grande's story unfolds in each twist and turn of this
mighty river's course.
For those traveling by raft, the journey is filled
with the unexpected.
Wild white water.
Ocotillo in bloom.
Abandoned forts along it's swollen banks.
The river has so many tales to share with those
who travel with it.
- MAN: Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo which actually
makes a lot more sense.
The Rio Grande in English.
The Rio Bravo has more of a gutsy feeling to it now
which is what it is.
[rushing water]
- GUIDE: Those oar stands can go inside.
[feet shuffling]
- NARRATOR: The bus, fully loaded, heads down to the river.
A raft trip on the Rio Grande is always exciting.
But recent heavy rains will make this trip
even more of a challenge.
[helicopter whirs]
The Rio Grande forms the border between Mexico and Texas,
where the river encounters the southern tip of the
Rocky Mountains it turns abruptly from its leisurely
southeastern course to the northeast, hence the area
is called the Big Bend.
This trip takes place here.
A 19-mile long section, which includes the
Santa Elena Canyon.
- MAN: Is there a little bitty one?
- MALE RAFTER: A men's skinny.
[laughter]
- GUIDE: If you fall out of the boat, even if you get
knocked out.
If you hit your head on a rock, the life jacket will
turn you right side up and float you.
[water rippling]
[music]
- MAN: On the river you get this feel for the river
and it's real hard to express but it's that thing,
that non-verbal thing that is what I would probably prize most
about knowing the river.
It's that feeling of moving with it in all it's
different moods.
And you know it's something other than you
and it's totally alive unto itself.
- RAFTER: I dream of being in deep waters.
An ocean, two or three or four thousand feet deep
and I'm at the bottom.
- NARRATOR: Fossil shells found in the area indicate
that the Big Bend once lay under a shallow sea.
Since that time over a hundred million years ago
tremendous transformations have occurred.
An uplift in the ocean floor pushed the sea aside.
[volcano explosion]
Violent volcanic eruptions created the mountains
we see today.
The land continued to shift and change.
[rocks crumble]
An alteration in climate increased rainfall in this
area creating the river we now know as the Rio Grande.
Slowly the moving water carved and is still carving
the canyon that is along this route.
[rafter grunts]
The landscapes that lie to either side of the river
are remnants of these past geologic events.
[water flowing]
The first evidence of human habitation has been dated
back ten thousand years.
Today visitors to the area can see remains of more
recent cultures.
Ahead on our trip, we encounter a 200 year old Presidio.
The Spanish word for fort.
- The Presidio probably dates back to the late-17,
early-1800s.
And what I've heard from some historians is they think
it's dated from the Franciscan monks that were coming
through here, setting up little forts on the routes that the
Indians traveled quite a bit.
[music]
- NARRATOR: Native Americans, Spaniards, soldiers,
missionaries.
The Rio Grande has played host to all these explorers
and now, river rafters are added to this list.
Unlike the explorers before them, people today make sure
they leave no trace of their visit behind them,
take nothing but memories away.
[music]
[bacon sizzles]
[egg cracks]
- RAFTER: Look at that.
Oh my God.
Oh the wagon wheel, there it is.
[rushing water]
- NARRATOR: A new day on the river begins as the rafters
immediately encounter the rapids that lead into the
Santa Elena Canyon.
These rapids only foreshadow the roaring white water ahead.
[rafters yell and laugh]
[rushing water]
[screams]
[rushing water]
The Rock Slide, the only really dangerous rapids on
this trip, is just inside the sheer canyon walls.
With the river swollen by recent rains,
even the most seasoned in this group can't predict
what they will encounter.
[water roars]
[music]
- [group] Woo!
[rushing water]
- NARRATOR: A lot of hearts are beating a little faster,
but all the rafts have made it safely through.
Though the river remains relatively calm for the
rest of this journey.
The desert that lies to either side is as harsh and dangerous
as the rapids that have been left behind.
[music]
- MAN: This place is so desolate and vacant and it frightens
a lot of people.
- NARRATOR: The Spaniards described this area with its
arid climate el Despoblado, uninhabitable land.
Though it's harsh, many plants have adapted to this
desert home.
By spending time exploring the surrounding desert,
visitors experience a more complete picture
of the Rio Grande.
- MAN: This bush is a plant that you find throughout most of
the deserts of the world.
This is called creosote or greasewood.
This is prickly pear over here for anybody who doesn't know.
This is a brown-spine prickly pear.
We got like seven different kinds of prickly pear
that grow out here.
[music]
- NARRATOR: The immensity of the Rio Grande,
the ferocity of the Rio Bravo,
this is a river with ever changing personalities.
It can be harsh and desolate or calm and comforting.
It is a river that must be accepted on its own terms
and once experienced, it leaves you forever changed.
- MAN: It sort of gives a person a sense of the right size of man
in a way.
That's what I like about this mountain
and wildlife and nature.
[music]