Baker's Crossing

Adventure Location:  Out in the Desert north of Del Rio, Texas

Rolling Date No Later Than: Feb. 1, 2013

For most of his paddling life of over fifty years the OFM has heard of Bakers Crossing as the starting point for folks wanting to run the Devils River by paddle craft. Power boats cannot make the passage.

The Devils River is an extremely remote section of the USA. Once you leave Bakers Crossing there is no contact available with the outside world until you get to Rough Canyon. The distance is unknown but the travel time runs about three days if things go perfect.

The place you start the trip is Bakers Crossing. The Meandering Team had never in our memory been to Bakers Crossing so we had to go look. It is very unimpressive and undeveloped. Apparently you have a shuttle drop you off and take your vehicle down river to Rough Canyon. Please check on the internet for exact CURRENT details about what you need to do. There are even a few videos of trips down the river on the internet. It is nice but way too tough for the Teams.

To get to the crossing from Del Rio you head north on hwy 90 to Comstock and turn on hwy 163 to the north. Twenty miles +/- later you are at Bakers Crossing. In between you drive a nice paved road through some very historically ornery terrain. The area around Deadman’s Pass has a lot of history during the Old West era of the USA. The road is the old wagon route. Here is the pass itself.

However for several miles either side is serious country in the Indian and highway men days. Holdups and other trouble were very common. Here is a sign to help with the story.

From the sign it is only a few miles to the Crossing. The Devils River runs south from the crossing.  ALL the land except for a small campsite way down river is private and trespassers may never be found again. Folks have been known to just evaporate when they trespass onto the private ranches.

The sign next to the road explains a lot about the Devils River State Natural Area. Research on the internet will gather many more details on the SNA.

The launch point is the drainage ditch on the side of the highway.  No longer term than launching parking is available.

This next view is from the hwy bridge looking upstream.

This is the direction you will be headed when you launch into a wonderful, if everything goes ok, adventure. It looks wonderful to the Teams.

After the few minutes looking around and getting a few pictures we headed back to the Castle. Since the Meandering Team had no prior knowledge of Deadman’s Pass, it was a good day of trying to have tooooo much fun. The OFM.