As the gateway to the Rio Grande and Big Bend, Terlingua’s the perfect base for outdoor activities like canoeing, whitewater rafting, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, and camping. Despite its arid climate and harsh terrain—summer temperatures regularly exceed 37 degrees Celsius—the area’s also home to a thriving wildlife population that includes Mexican black bears, bighorn sheep, roadrunners, coyotes, and over 450 species of birds. It’s the definition of a desert oasis.
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And yet, all of this could be under attack. If President Trump gets his wish to construct a wall along the border, the American borderlands’ most sensitive ecosystems (including the Big Bend area) will be directly impacted.
To expose more people to this remarkable but fragile region, Austin is starring as a main character in the highly anticipated documentary The River and The Wall, which follows a crew of conservationists on a nearly 1,900 kilometer journey along the Texas border by horse, bike and boat. “This place is full of secrets and every adventure through it is a chance to uncover a new experience,” he says during our lunch. “We need to appreciate it, to protect it.”
After packing up our canoes, Austin suggests we turn back downstream. If we hurry, he says, we’ll have time to knock out a hike to ‘The Window’, perhaps the most renowned spot to see a sunset in all of Big Bend. Having seen pictures of the awe-striking view in magazines and on friends’ Instagrams, I readily hop into my boat to begin the journey.
