Comal River

About the River

The Comal rises at Comal Springs in Landa Park, in the heart of New Braunfels, and covers only about two and a half miles before joining the Guadalupe River downtown, one of the shortest rivers in Texas. Fed entirely by the Edwards Aquifer, it holds a remarkably stable, clear flow year-round, averaging around 300 cubic feet per second regardless of season, in sharp contrast to the runoff-driven rivers nearby. The entire river sits inside New Braunfels city limits.

Recreation on the Comal centers on one well-worn stretch: from Prince Solms Park down to the city's mandatory Last Tubers' Exit, a run of just over a mile that carries the bulk of the tens of thousands of tubers who float it every summer. The signature feature is the City Tube Chute, a concrete slide built over the historic Clemens Dam that funnels tubers through a fast, splashy drop; hard boats are required to portage around it during peak tubing season. Below the chute, two low-head dams, one just above San Antonio Street and one beside the Schlitterbahn water park, add mild wave features but are generally passable. Outside the summer tubing rush, the same stretch draws paddlers to a mellow Class I-II reach.

The river's stability cuts both ways: the same spring-fed consistency that keeps it floatable nearly year-round also means it responds slowly to rain, so it can rise and stay high for days after a major storm, when the city restricts or closes river access outright. Because the whole run sits inside the city, tubers can walk the roughly half-mile back to Prince Solms Park after exiting, and outfitters throughout downtown New Braunfels rent tubes and run shuttles all summer.