The railroad had a problem when it got to the Pecos River. The gorge was too deep and too wide for a bridge. It would take too long to go around to the north. The tracks had to go around to the south and cross the mouth at the confluence with the Rio Grande.  

The only problem was the tracks would have to parallel and then climb the cliffs. The solution was two tunnels that would carve through the sides of the cliffs and allow the tracks to reach from the high plateau to the riverbed.  

Eventually, the highest railroad bridge in Texas was built over the gorge and the tunnels were abandoned. They can be seen from Amistad Reservoir, along with the remains of the small town that sprung up as they were built. 

I could not resist the climb up to check them out. The west tunnel is nearly a half-mile long with two side tunnels cut out to the cliff edge that overlooks the river.  

Inside, it smelled of bat guano and the floor was covered in several inches of black dust. A partially mummified goat was near the east entrance. A herd of at least 50 were scattered along the cliffs of the east entrance and their constant calls to each other echoed through the tunnel.  

From there, it was a short paddle to the confluence of the Pecos River. The supports of the old railroad bridge are buried under mud — as is just about everything else. We camped at the base of the cliffs on the firmest ground we could find.    

Our challenge was we needed to get out of the Rio Grande and about a half mile up the Pecos River to the boat ramp. That was our rendezvous for a side trip to the Devils River to look at how spring flows keep it the cleanest river in Texas and how those flows impact the water quality of the Rio Grande. 

In between the Rio Grande and the Pecos is a half-mile wide berm of mud created by the two rivers coming together and being periodically submerged by the rising waters created by Amistad Reservoir.  

On the Rio Grande side, the mud is pretty hard and cut by the river so getting out only required a few quick steps. We were then able to build a pier of reeds over the soft mud to unload the canoe.  

But on the Pecos side of the berm, the mud is made of the finest of sediment and goes from hard and slick to a pudding that is too thin to support weight but just thick enough to make paddling nearly impossible.  

After four hours of construction using stones tossed down from the cliff and bundles of dried reeds, we had a second pier and were across the mouth of the Pecos.  

Thrilled to be away from the mud and minutes away from climbing into the cab of a heated pickup, we noticed there were quite a few dead fish floating in the water.  

Then we noticed there were hundreds of dead fish. Longnose gar, sunfish, crappies and chad had all gone belly up.  We did not see any catfish. The dissolved oxygen levels were low enough to kill fish, but it was odd that so many of the gar would have died. They can handle low oxygen levels and can breathe air when necessary.  

A fisheries biologist from the National Park Service showed up to take samples, but did not have any conclusions. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality was also notified and would do its own investigation.  

I’ll follow up with them later this week.  

I’m looking forward to seeing the Devils. I’ve had enough of mud and dead fish for a while.

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