Guadalupe River

About the River

The Guadalupe rises in the Hill Country near Hunt, northwest of Kerrville, and runs roughly 230 miles through Kerrville and Center Point before reaching Canyon Lake, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood-control reservoir. Below the dam, it continues through New Braunfels and Gruene on its way to San Antonio Bay on the Gulf Coast. This guide focuses on that tailwater corridor below Canyon Lake, by far the river's busiest and best-documented recreational stretch.

The Corps manages an April-through-August recreational-pool deviation that targets a minimum release, roughly 250 cubic feet per second in a typical summer, specifically to support the tubing and rafting industry that has built up along the river. From the dam, the run passes a series of low-water dams and named rapids on its way to New Braunfels: Horseshoe Falls, once one of the most notorious tubing hazards in the state, and Kanz Dam, which remains a serious hazard even at flows the city otherwise allows for tubing. Below First Crossing, the river continues past Hueco Falls and Gruene, home to the outfitter scene built around Rockin' R River Rides and Camp Huaco Springs, before reaching Cypress Bend Park, the city's designated final public exit for tubers.

Because releases are Corps-managed, flows swing far more than a simple rain-driven river: a calm 250 cfs tubing day can become a multi-thousand-cfs whitewater release after heavy rain fills the lake. The USGS gauge at Sattler is also known to read artificially high above roughly 4,700 cfs of actual release, so cross-check the Corps' own release figures during high water rather than trusting the gauge alone. As with any Hill Country river, conditions can rise quickly after storms upstream, so check current flows before heading out rather than relying on typical-season assumptions.