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The famous Taos Box in the Rio Grande River, near Taos, New Mexico is an awesome adventure, as seen in this video (3min 28sec). Taos is a big river rafting destination and many Taos companies as well as Santa Fe companies offer one-day and multi-day packages.

The geology that created the box, and the 1,800-mile long Rio Grande River, was a millions-of-years-ago rift, or crack, between the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the ranges to the west.

Volcanic activity filled the crack with lava. About 3 million years ago, water draining from the San Juan Mountains of Colorado began carving the river that dissects New Mexico and, eventually, the west and southwest boundary of Texas and the Texas-Mexico border, before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico.

But before that runoff settles down to a placid river, it rumbles through far northern New Mexico like a hormone-charged teenage boy driving a bumper car at the county fair, slamming and whamming into whatever comes next without restraint.

Those Last Four Miles!

In the Box, things get especially wild the last four miles, when the constantly evolving geology combines with a narrowing canyon to create a succession of wildly whipping Class 4 rapids. The stretch of river is remarkable enough that the Box and a neighboring section were the nation's first wild and scenic river.

"The last four miles are just screaming huge big stuff," said Cisco Guevara, who's been running the Box for 32 years and operates his own river rafting company, Los Rios River Runners, in Taos. That doesn't mean he's immune or satiated by the river. "Especially at the top of the Rock Garden," he admits in a voice that exudes equal amounts of fear, respect and excitement, "I still get butterflies."

Music by Brent Berry

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