kayaking

Favorite Places to Paddle in Texas

/ gravescolleen / Leave a comment

I started kayaking when I moved to Austin, but in 2021, I bought an ISLE Paddleboard, and it changed my paddling behavior FOREVER! Having an inflatable board made it so easy to travel and try out new places! I even started taking the kayak out on trips, too! Check out my list, and let me know where I need to go that I haven’t been yet in the comments!

Austin

  • Ladybird Lake downtown: I like to put in at the Austin High Boat ramp and paddle at sunset! I also love taking the yak to the Festival Beach ramp and then booking it over to South Congress to watch the bats emerge from under the bridge in the summer. It’s quite a windy paddle back in the dusk, so I prefer kayaking to paddleboard for this!
  • Red Bud Isle: This is one of the first places I took my paddleboard, and it made me feel like I’d become a real Austinite. However, it has a very limited amount of parking…. Like only 10 spots! So you may have to circle the lot to get a spot. This is a very popular spot for dog walkers.
  • Quinlan Park on Lake Austin: One morning we couldn’t get into Emma Long Park. So I took a friend to rent a board close by and we put in at Quinlan Park. It was nice and cold, but there was a lot of boat wake here, so I wouldn’t recommend it.
  • Jessica Hollis: This is at a low water-crossing by Mansfield Dam. This is a great place for beginners as it is generally calm and the water is SOOO cold and lovely. Unfortunately, in 2024, they instituted a new policy where you have to reserve a $45 table to paddle here on the weekends. On Sundays, they release water from the dam, which makes it quite hard to get back sometimes!
  • Cypress Creek Park on Lake Travis: This is a great little cove with minimal boats! 2024 update: The drought has dried up a lot of this cove! Wasn’t able to paddle here for a few summers- has it filled back up yet?

North of Austin

  • Brushy Creek Lake: Not super impressed with paddling here as the algae is really gnarly because of the fertilizer run-off from the golf course. However, I love the hike/bike trails, and I will share a post about these and other ATX biking trails soon!
  • San Gabriel River: This is a great little spot to put in at Chandler Park. It’s short and the water isn’t the cleanest, but it is super chill. 2025 update: Haven’t been able to check yet, but I’m sure the July floods have made this impassable.
  • Lakewood Park in Leander: You can rent paddleboards and kayaks here. It’s very quiet but it was really windy the day I went out! Note: They have a REALLY cool skatepark here!
  • Georgetown Lake: We put in at Russell Park, and it’s a very windy lake! I never even made it across to the Crockett Garden Falls yet. I think I’m just not much of a lake paddler!
  • Georgetown Blue Hole: This is also on the San Gabriel River. It has a very long portage from the parking to the blue hole, but I do love to paddle (and hike) this little stretch of the San Gabriel River! 2025 update: This is not paddleable until the July Flood damage is cleared out! (And my poor Katy trail bike ride is also out! (I’ll include the awesome Georgetown Trail Foundation trails in my epic trail list!)

South of Austin

  • San Marcos: Rio Vista to Spring Lake is my absolute favorite paddle; I call it the Dream Paddle. It’s pretty fun to keep going down past the chutes! I’ve gone as far south as Don’s Fish Camp, but have yet to make it to Martindale. Read more about this paddle here.
  • New Braunfels Guadalupe to Comal: I like to park at Cypress Bend Park but you have to get here really early. You can toodle about and swim in this shaded place all day, or head to the confluence and head up the Comal just mind those tubers! During drought summers, this is one of the only places to paddle in Central Texas!
  • Spring Branch: We kayaked the Guadalupe here from Edge Falls to the Guadalupe River SP- it had a lot of rapids- so I wouldn’t recommend SUP, but it was a great kayaking trip! It would probably be better to kayak from the State Park down to Nichol’s Landing as it’s more traveled and a safer trip! 2025 update: I’m not sure this is paddleable since the July 2025 flood. According to the state park, most of the debris has cleared up.

East of Austin

  • Lake Bastop South Shore Park: This is another super chill spot, but the lake is by a power plant, so if you paddle too far out, it is a bit noisy. It’s probably best for just chilling and swimming!
  • Bastrop Colorado River: This is a really nice float if you put in at FisherMan’s Park and paddle about 6 miles downriver to the Colorado River Refuge. It’s a great way to spend a Saturday! You can rent a boat or even just a shuttle with the Bastrop River Co. You can also start higher up the river and end at Fisherman’s Park.
Paddling to Boy Scout island
  • Navasota River in Fort Parker State Park: I love camping and exploring rivers, and I can’t wait to go back to see more of this river! On this trip, I’d forgotten my paddle, and the state park was nice enough to loan me one for the weekend!

Central Texas

  • Frio River in Garner State Park: This is one clear, gorgeous, and short paddle but it is a wonderful beginner paddle, and a glorious place to swim in the summer. I love to camp, hike, bike, and paddle here! Well worth the drive and the hype!
  • Inks Lake State Park: So close to Austin, yet it feels like you are on another planet. This is one of my favorite places to camp, hike, and paddle! I like to put in at the lake and head over to the Devil’s swimming hole. This is also one of the best places in Texas to hike among wildflowers and Bluebonnets in the spring!
  • Colorado River by Colorado Bend State Park: I stayed at Barefoot Camp and paddled here, but I have yet to meet my goal of paddling to Gorman Falls! See my full post about hiking and backpacking at Colorado Bend through the seasons.

North

  • Lake Ray Roberts State Park: If you live in North Texas, this is a pretty chill place to hang out in the coves or by the beach. Great camping too!

West Texas

  • South Llano River: This is another great spring-fed river in Texas! Back when REI was still doing guided trips, I went on this 18 mile paddle on the South Llano River! We paddled 11 miles the first day, camped at South Llano River State Park, then paddled the rest of the way to City Park in Junction the next morning. The REI guides were so awesome, and it was such a nice group of people. I met my adventure buddy, Shana on this trip, and we’ve been on many trips since. The water was low and the rapids were fast! A lot of this paddle felt like playing a video game. At one point, my boat turned around at the start of some rapids and I had to paddle backwards down them- looking behind me to avoid rocks and rudder backwards. At just the right point, I shoved my paddle into the water and flipped the boat around the right direction. I felt like a total badass.
  • Santa Elena Canyon: This epic paddle deserves its own post, read more here. My teen daughter, adventure buddy Shana, and I booked a trip with Big Bend Boating and Hiking Company to canoe into Santa Elena Canyon, camp in the backcountry, and enjoy life! We covered 18 miles of the Rio Grande on this boomerang trip during our 3 glorious days in Big Bend National Park, canoeing, swimming, and camping. I would absolutely recommend Big Bend Boating and Hiking Company as outfitters. We had great guides, great food, and an amazing experience! They outfitted the canoes, dry bags, tents, sleeping pads, food, and water!

San Marcos- Dream Paddling

/ gravescolleen / 1 Comment
TLDR:

1-2 Hour Paddle

7-8 Hour Paddle

Important to Note:

  • A can ban was instituted in 2024, and there is a significant fine if you have trash in the river!
  • There is also fencing placed at Rio Vista Park on weekends and later in the day that can make it difficult to park. You can always drop your paddling equipment (if you have a friend who can wait with it) near the Lion’s Club tube shuttle by Ivar’s River Pub, find parking, and then come enjoy the river!

San Marcos is known for this tubing spot, but it is one of my absolute favorite places to paddle. The water is clear, cold, and spring-fed. It’s a beautiful spot to paddle any time of year, but in the summertime, the water feels like the fountain of youth! It’s a constant 72 degrees no matter how hot it gets here in Texas. Heads up! The city introduced a can ban in 2024, and you must use reusable containers while enjoying the river.

The headwaters of this amazing river are the habitat for a rare and endangered aquatic grass known as Texas Wild Rice. Be careful not to paddle into it! You’ll see Texas State students maintaining and working in the area.

Since this spot is a tubers’ paradise, you’ll want to get to Rio Vista Park before 9:00 am if you want to experience the dream paddle! My favorite thing to do is park here and paddle upriver towards Spring Lake. You’ll have to work hard to go upstream, and I usually bring a kayak paddle on my paddleboard for this section of the river. But don’t fret, your first swim break will come up at City Park (where you can rent the tubes from the Lions club). This is a great spot to get out and bask in the cold, refreshing water.

If you keep paddling upstream past the campus, there’s a beautiful swimming hole behind Kerbey Lane that is so cold and dreamy! Just a little bit further up is the waterfall of water coming off of Spring Lake, but you can’t access this area from here.

If you want to visit Spring Lake where these headwaters start, you can book a guided paddle, ride in a glass-bottom boat, or even book a nighttime glow kayak with The Meadows Center. (Scroll to the end to see!)

From this swimming spot, it’s time to turn around and enjoy your peaceful drift back towards Rio Vista Park. All in all, this trip might take you an hour or two, depending on how long you relish the swimming holes. I love to paddle up and back a couple of times, just to savor my time on the river a bit longer!

Wanna go further?

If you have shuttle friends and a whole day– you can meet at Rio Vista Park in the morning, unload all of your paddleboards/kayaks, and then shuttle some cars down to the San Marcos Scout Camp behind the Pecan Park Riverside RV Park. It’s just a couple of bucks to park your car here. Then have at least one car drive everyone back to Rio Vista to start your paddle, and you can get a good 7-8 mile paddle in, depending on how many times you paddle up towards Spring Lake! You will have to portage at Cunnings Dam, make sure to head to the left as it’s a better walk than trying to drop your boat down the ladder on the right side of the dam. (Trust me, this sucks!) This trip will take most of your day. Remember it’s a peace paddle- so you are only floating about 1 mile an hour down this lovely river. Enjoy it because these lazy river days are the best kind of days!

The first time I went on this paddle with some friends, none of us had ever paddled it, and we were told it would take 3 or 4 hours. It was dreamy and peaceful, with the sun dappling through the trees and the gentle lapping of the chilly water against our paddleboards creating a serene atmosphere, but when dusk started to settle, we got a little worried we might never leave the river! The setting sun painted the sky in vibrant hues of orange and pink, which added to our sense of wonder, yet our anxiety grew as we realized none of us knew how far we still were from our exit point. We kept making Gilligan’s Island jokes about how it was just supposed to just be a “3-hour tour,” and laughter filled the air, momentarily easing our concerns. Most of the river from I-35 to the Scout camp is private land, so there is no escaping the river until you get to the Scout camp or Texas Tubes, which felt both like a thrilling adventure and a slight predicament. The sounds of nature became more pronounced as night approached, and we eagerly paddled onward, trying to make the most of our experience. Luckily, we made it to the take out point just before nightfall! Whatever you do, just make sure to plan ahead and enjoy your time on the water!

Rio Vista Park to San Marcos Scout Camp

Night Time Paddling?

If you want a truly unique experience at Spring Lake, the reason this beautiful river exists, you can book a lovely nighttime glow kayak with The Meadows Center. They offer this a few times a year along with snorkeling and more, so make sure to check it out! I’ve also night paddled the river with Paddle SMTX and really enjoyed the nighttime kayak with a guide!