Experiencing the turquoise waters of the Devils River in South Texas isn't easy.

It involves dragging heavy boats and braving epic storms.

But the lush forest, intense night skies, solitude and magical waters are worth it all.

Come join us on an epic adventure.

The Living Peace Foundation is honored to provide funding support for wild Rivers with Tilly, supporting people in projects that creatively and courageously advance collaboration, compassion and living peace.

This series shares the passion that the Living Peace Foundation has for the health and connectedness of our planet and all who inhabit it.

I am Veteran River Guide and conservationist Tilley Walton.

Join me as I lead different groups down the great rivers of the American West.

Wow!

It█s like so narrow.

We█re driving a houseboat.

The Devils River is in a little known part of southern Texas, near the border of Mexico, where a spring fed river emerges from the ground and creates a beautiful turquoise desert oasis in the middle of nowhere.

We are on the Devils River and this is about mile 14, the trip will finish at mile 33.

We don't want to get hurt.

if you see a rapid or some kind of obstacle that is out of your league, don't do it.

Take control of your kayak like it was a horse.

You want to make sure you are the master of your boat.

That's why I say keep your ropes handy all the time.

When you get out of your boat, you will see us.

When we get close to the waterfall, we're going get out of our boat and start walking our boat like a dog.

It feels like the winds are going to be in all directions today, so it'll help us every now and then, but mostly just hinder you.

All this stuff, we're going to figure out how to put it all on these canoes and these little sit on top kayaks.

It's a really cool river system.

It's super clear and isolated down here in southwest Texas.

It's one of a beautiful natural element we have in our state.

Well, I think we're doing the same stretch of the river, me and my brother did two years ago.

So looking forward to do it again with a new group of people.

Charlie, what's the trick to these?

This also you can adjust the seat and the strap is going to hold it keep from flying away.

You always want your rig to flip.

First time on the Devils River.

First time on a little sit on top kayak on the river.

Here we go... Tonight... cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms with winds up to 30 miles per hour Emergency poncho for the incoming rain.

and today we have the biggest rapid of the day.

It used to be called the San Pedro or Saint Peter River, named by the Spaniards in the 1700s.

But in the 1800s, Texas Ranger John Coffey Hayes was trying to find a route to cross it and it was about 105 degrees.

And the only place that was cool was this stretch of river through this hellish desert.

He said, I don't think it's the Saint Peters River, It looks more like the Devils River to me, because this place is hell.

It sounds like we're in a jungle.

I've never seen a river like this before.

Just, I don't know, this unique combination.

It feels really, really different.

And it looks like we're coming to our first rapid.

So wish me luck Going towards a great waterfall, portaging just like John Wesley Powell when he was in the Grand Canyon.

He carried all his boats, these big wooden boats around big cliffs and waterfalls.

And now we're doing the same with little boats.

And I'm glad these are not big boats.

This is so cool.

It's like an outdoor classroom for geology and hydrology.

As we're going through the rapids, because the water's so clear, you can actually see how the rapids are formed.

So kind of on a little mini scale, you can see what goes on under water.

It's like an x ray of all the rapids.

The other unique thing about this is that this whole entire river... most rivers come from snowmelt and rainfall.

This entire river system comes from a spring.

Which there's an underground aquifer and then it seeps out.

And so the springs that create this magical ecosystem are still intact.

And we have all this water here from an underground spring.

And as we go down the river, we'll see these big caves and caverns and things in the limestone rock.

Groundwater and surface water are actually one and the same.

And it's hard to imagine that water you can't see underground actually is the same thing as surface water.

And so this is one of the places where that really comes to life.

And there is even a catfish that's about five inches long and it's pink looking and lives 2000 feet under the ground.

It's the endangered Devils River catfish.

Not my first trip out to the Devils, but it's my first long expedition in about 15 years.

I went when I was a young man.

And... And now back out again.

And there's nothing like coming back to a place that remains unchanged to see ways in which yourself have been changed.

It's quiet, it's peaceful.

There's no people other than us and it's quite an experience to come out here.

And I often can't believe we're still in the state of Texas.

What attracts me to the Devils River is just the cleanness of the water.

It█s so clear.

We were going to run this river 50 years ago and we were persuaded not to.

We always wanted to do the Devils River after that.

We couldn't wait for a chance to do it.

It really looks like it's out of the Caribbean.

Yeah.

It really does.

The depth of color in the and the different colors that come out as the sunlight changes throughout the day are really neat to go everywhere from almost like a gin clear, you know, Bahama Beach vacation to something like an electric blue you get in some of the deeper spots and and there's just very very few clear rivers like this really anywhere in the United States, but certainly here in Texas.

I forget the actual term for it, but it's basically a recognized dark spot in the United States.

And tonight will be one of the blackest skies you'll ever see.

There's a rating scale that goes from 1 to 9.

If you have zero light around, that's the one on the scale.

This place is an international dark sky oasis, and it's a number two on the scale between one and nine.

But it's a very small watershed, so it takes a lot of rain in this area to keep the springs charged up.

However, because it's all limestone here, it stays charged like a big limestone sponge.

It just holds the water and leaks it out.

Rivers make up less than 1% of all water on Earth, but yet, especially in a desert environment, 90% of the biodiversity is found along a river system or riparian area.

And this, like, really illustrates that.

Yeah, you just you just hike up over the cliff or even get up there.

It's it's suddenly you're back into desert scrubland.

Oh, there's so many little minnows here.

There's a lot of different species of fish here.

But the most common minnow or one of them is the Devils River Minnow, which is like a threatened species that only lives here.

This isn't our typical boating gear, like river shoes and long pants.

So this is all limestone underneath us and on the mountainsides here.

But the limestone percolates through it.

So it's calcium carbonate.

So kind of like what makes stalactites are stalagmites and it makes formations on the rock, but it becomes very, very rough.

I guess you would call this sort of a pool drop river, because, you know, you have these long, big flat stretches of of pools and deep pools, and then you have the rapids where all the rocks are and it creates all the waves like rapids are, because you have a constriction.

You have kind of a drop from higher up to lower down or you have rocks underneath or a combination of all of those.

This is a classic pool and drop river.

And we're in a pool right now about a mile long, nothing but just flat water.

And then at the end of this stretch, we'll all run through a little.

It's called Rough Canyon Rapid.

The permit system that the park has set up is 12 boaters per day, which includes guides.

Every group that goes doesn't have to worry about another group.

Usually, sometimes other boaters.

A lot of them are just local landowners.

So 12 people a day like compared to, you know, when I was working in the Grand Canyon, that was we were 20,000 people a year.

And even that is a small portion.

But really when you think of the percentage of the billions of people in this world, there's very few people that come down and experiences.

Coming out here since the early rather late fifties, I guess.

It█s supposed to be the most pristine river in the state.

And unlike a lot of the rivers in Texas, it's not easy to get to.

So we don't have a lot of tourists.

It█s pretty remote.

Our first day we█ll portage over carry our gear, unload our boats It's a it's beautiful.

Why do we have to carry all the gear?

It's about a 15 foot drop.

So you really can't take a boat through it with any gear in it.

It's also, if you don't have super top notch boating skills, you're not going to be able to hit that, rapid it very well.

It's sort of an interesting public private interaction here between, you know, landowners who probably are out here.

But we've also seen some some development.

So it's it's kind of a weird thing because we're sort of in the middle of nowhere.

But then you look up sometimes and see a gigantic house on the side of the river.

Headwinds are always here, there's no doubt about that.

Headwinds, rain, rough, dragging your canoe everywhere.

Just getting all the way out here.

Well, everything breaks on this trip, including your body.

The Devils River, the cleanest, most pristine river in Texas.

Very small watershed, only about 60 miles long, with really only about 25 of those miles navigable by canoe or kayak.

The dam that created Lake Amistad, which is the second largest body of water in Texas, that dam has made the confluence of the Rio Grande and the Devils River.

It's just a really unique environment in the middle of the desert.

Every trip to the Devils is kind of unique, though.

It usually rains one of the four days, because we do a four day trip.

Last night we had a barnburner of a storm.

It came in and we we knew it was coming.

So we camped up on high ground to avoid the flash flooding Armageddon storm.

I mean, I've never been in anything like that in my entire life.

Winds blowing it.

Sideways.

Sideways.

But we survived.

I woke up in like four in the morning and came out here and I looked at everything had cleared up.

The ground had already dried up except for these big pockets of water here.

Just looked like nothing had ever happened.

And it's cool to see these.

This is how the river gets recharged.

Are these little pockets all over the limestone.

And so now we're having a good breakfast.

So another day on the river and just an incredible experience.

There are dozens of rapids, but there is about four major ones where you got to really scout it and check it out, make sure you understand what you're doing before you do it.

We always snorkel through the rapids after we're done and get through them, and we always find fishing poles.

We found GoPros, Yeti mugs, you name it, glasses.

There are some rapids on the river that are just as the river kind of stretches out, gets very shallow, and you can't run it.

And that one there, the river just broadens and it just it's a boulder field everywhere, just a boulder garden.

So when you get to that, you just everybody has to get out, get in waist deep water and slowly drag your boat through, push it through, and then get back in once you've negotiated the obstacle.

That's why we don't do this river also in the cold months, because every day you've got to get in waist deep water or more to get your boat through these obstacles.

The river ends in Lake Amistad.

It's actually a international boundary.

Half the water in the lake is Mexico, half the water is the US and it's the second largest body of water in Texas.

So here we line boats in lining is just as much of a skill set as paddling.

So we have a rope on the front and the back of the boat to balance stern.

Sometimes you have to walk the boat in front of you and hold the back line.

Sometimes you have to lead with the front line.

Sometimes you have to have both.

We have done a successful portage and now whoa.

Sorry, we have a the rest of the river to go explore.

So very cool.

You don't usually have hard portages on river, so usually we just run everything.

So that was exciting and a great workout.

When you have a spring for a long time, it starts to form travertine.

And that may be what's happening over here because you clearly have a place where the water is seeping through the rocks and the ferns are able to attach to the rocks and just grow on there.

I like the remote wilderness aspect of this river.

A lot of rivers are very busy here with the 12 permits a day system, including the guides on any commercial trip really cuts down on the amount of people that you see on the river.

There are homes along the river, but most of those are vacation homes and unoccupied.

So even when you do pass them, you always have a sense of quiet still remote wilderness here.

Oh, are jumping rock.

It's a great place to cool off after that long day of work through a lot of those rapids.

Most people like to do it.

It takes a little convincing when some people are up there.

Yeah, it's definitely foresty here, but off in the distance you see the real desert landscape.

And driving up to it, it's hard to kind of see the river until you're right there.

You wouldn't quite know that there's this beautiful oasis river flowing through.

This is one of the more incredible, adventurous trips.

It doesn't have much white water, but in the remoteness, I mean, this river makes you work for it.

The headwinds, the dragging your boats cross between camping and rafting.

Usually rafting is a little more luxurious.

This is more a kind of expedition style.

It's so worth the effort, but it takes a lot of effort.

I mean, I woke up this morning, I was so sore.

And we're paddling, you know, we have to make miles each day and we're not going that far.

But somehow going seven miles takes us all day long.

And by the time you get to camp, you are so beat.

Not going to get any warmer.

Come and get it.

The camp food is awesome.

It's pretty good.

We have whatever we need in the middle of nowhere.

Some sort of... sausage maybe hot dogs in there.

Who knows?

this is what a river should be.

There are birds chirping.

We have all this native vegetation.

I mean, it's so full of life.

A lot of the rivers that we visit are kind of dead.

And when you get to something that's pristine and as it should be, it feels different.

You're just in like the breath of life when you're here and from everything from the color of the water, the clarity of the water, just the whole experience unlike anything I've ever done before.

There's not very many rivers that you can snorkel, at least in the United States.

And so to have this crystal clear water where you can pop on a mask and snorkel and cruise around and look at the fish and the like going through an aquarium, you can feel what it's like to be a fish in a river.

Paddling along you don't really mind doing the work because it's so unique.

And as you're paddling along, you see fish like big, long spotted fish, turtles.

You paddle through flowers.

These willows that have flowers on them, you look down and you can see the rocks that are forming the rapids.

You can see the algae that's under there and it looks like an underwater forest.

And so it's just such a different perspective of being in your boat and moving along the top of the water, yet having an inside view into what's inside the water.

I mean, a river is all about play.

You know, it's kind of I think the ranger called it Nature's Water Playground.

We have not had a lunch on shore yet.

Everything has been a floating lunch.

So we pull over on the side in an eddy, which is a slow moving water and we'll just put the boats together, tie them together and around a bag of tomatoes or cheese sticks, camping style.

This is actually pretty amazing because we have this sense of being literally in the middle of nowhere.

But from a bird's view you can see roads.

So there are people here and we see signs of current life as well as past lives from the folks whose land this is originally, pictographs are from over 2000 years ago.

It's a bonding experience because it's the thread that pulls us all together and we get to help each other get through this.

We're all in this together.

And so even though we don't know each other, we're in on this experience where all of a sudden we're family.

It's Ever since the days of old men come here to paddle their boats... pan for silver and for gold.. catfish in the Rio... Way down south in the Texas bays where the black water rolls and the sawgrass flays The ospreys fly and the otters p on the Devils Rio...

So flow, flow Devils River Flow like you█re never going to roll again.

Flowing through like a long lost friend... but I know who you are.

Flow, flow down the Amistad way all the way up the little juno way Flow like the... ...the alligator and the gar.

So right where I'm walking, there's a deep pool over here.

It's nice and shallow here where I'm walking.

And then you can see this rapid that comes together.

And this is really it shows you how a rapids forms because here you have these two rocks which constrict the river and the water flows over the rocks, gets constricted together and has a little drop.

And that's what makes these beautiful waves.

And then as I walk across here, also, I'm kind of walking across this forest of algae that the water is flowing over and the current gets kind of swift right here because it's all moving together and then it gets shallow again right here.

And this rock that we're on is called travertine.

Along this island here, there's so many trees, there's cottonwoods, there's mesquite, there's sycamore.

But more importantly, there's variety.

And that's part of what this river does, is it creates this diverse richness of life.

So we've both been on a lot of rivers.

What's different about this one for you?

I have just been loving seeing all the riparian, healthy riparian zones with these sycamore trees and just all the diversity, the mesquites.

We're in the middle of this desert out in the middle of Texas, and you would expect it to be just a dry, barren lands.

But the vegetation has just been phenomenal.

I didn't expect that.

I feel like our everyday lives, there's so many distractions that it's hard to get time when you can just be and talk and connect with people and nature.

It's just so rare to find this time and it's very special.

Yeah, that pause.

I like to pause.

I mean, even though we're working hard, it's a pause.

Yeah, just a deep pause from the everyday distractions that we have in our lives.

This turquoise paradise known as the Devils River is what a river is supposed to look like.

The water flows from the heart of the earth and comes down and creates this rich oases of life.

And these gems are rare and few and far between.

So hopefully we'll be able to preserve and protect all of them because there are very few places like this left on earth.

The Living Peace Foundation is honored to provide funding support for Wild Rivers with Tillie, supporting people and projects that creatively and courageously advance collaboration, compassion and living peace.

This series shares the passion that the Living Peace Foundation has for the health and connectedness of our planet and all who inhabit it.

I invite you to visit us at wildriverswithtillie dot org or wildriverswithtillie dot com