Devils River State Natural Area

The Devils River gathers in southwestern Sutton County and runs 94 miles southwest through cut limestone to Amistad Reservoir, fed by springs and thirty-two tributaries, among them Dolan Creek, where Dolan Falls forms. Gaspar Castaño de Sosa traveled along it in 1590 and called it Laxas, slack or feeble. Later travelers knew it as the San Pedro, until, by the story the Handbook of Texas tells, the Texas Ranger captain Jack Hays looked into one of its canyons in the 1840s and said it looked more like the Devil's river than Saint Peter's. It mattered as water and a way through the canyons.

The state bought the 19,000-acre Del Norte Unit in May 1988 and added the 18,000-acre Dan A. Hughes Unit, 13 miles downstream, twenty-two years later. Together they cover more than 37,000 acres. Rock art in the Lower Pecos style survives here, in shelters like those flooded when Amistad filled, and rangers lead weekly tours to pictograph sites. TPWD asks visitors to look without touching and to leave artifacts where they lie.

This is not a drive-in park. Reservations are required to visit either unit, the units are far apart by road, and you pack in all water and pack out all trash. At Del Norte the river is a third of a mile from the parking lot. More than 25 miles of trails are open to hikers and bikers. Paddlers on extended trips need a Devils River Access Permit and, by TPWD's advice, experience and at least three days of supplies.