El Camino Real Paddling Trail

Calm and relaxing, with a bit of wind to battle against at the end – that was my family’s experience paddling one of Texas’ official paddling trails this weekend.

The El Camino Real Paddling Trail is a roughly six-mile stretch of the Colorado River that begins at Fisherman’s Park in downtown Bastrop, Texas, and ends at the Colorado River Refuge Boat Ramp off Riverside Drive in Bastrop’s Tahitian Village neighborhood.

We had paddled a five-mile stretch of the Colorado in Webberville (west of Bastrop) several times before, but this was our first time doing a portion of the river near Bastrop. This section is one of two official paddling trails in this area, with the other being Wilbarger Paddling Trail, which begins at the 969 river crossing and ends at Fisherman’s Park.

The river is wide and slow-moving (even at around 700 CFS, where it was on the morning we went) and, at times, you have to deal with a stronger headwind. Thankfully, we only encountered a short stretch with noticeable headwind during the last mile of our trip – as the temperature was warming quickly by that point, the breeze was nice but made paddling a bit harder. That said, a member of a Facebook paddling group I’m part of noted that she had done the same stretch a few days prior and dealt with a headwind much of the way.

On this six-mile stretch there are no rapids, only a few riffles here and there – the same is true for most of the Colorado. Southwest Paddler, a great resource for river information, notes that, “the river is, for all intents and purposes, free of …. rapids, waterfalls, rock ledges, outcroppings or obstacles to paddling.” The main things to look out for on this section are any strainers or sweepers as with most rivers.

While there are no dramatic cliffs or bluffs, like you’ll find on sections of the South Llano and Llano, and there isn’t a great deal of shade, like you’ll find on portions of the Frio, Medina and Guadalupe, it is a very scenic part of the river. Thick trees line the banks on most of the six miles and you pass under several bridges (two early and one near the end).

Lack of shade is one drawback to paddling the Colorado in general, however, there are many spots where you could pull over near the bank to get a break from the sun under a tree if needed. Also, there’s one portion – roughly two miles into the paddle – where you can go right at a long, narrow island to paddle through a tree-canopied section of the river. We opted not to go that way this time since the sun was behind the clouds and our son wanted to stay on the main part of the river. It also appeared that we might have needed to do some walking / dragging near the end close to where this offshoot recombined with the main river if we had. However, it would have provided a nice break from the sun had it been warmer out, and we plan to check out that route next time we make this trip.

We shuttled ourselves and brought our own kayaks, but there are several outfitters in Bastrop that will rent equipment and/or shuttle you for either of the paddling trail sections in this area. For either of the official paddling trails near Bastrop, Rising Phoenix Adventures and Bastrop Paddling Company, are good options for outfitters. For the five-mile paddle between parks in Webberville, Cook’s Canoes would be the folks to contact.

Putting in our kayaks at the Fisherman’s Park boat ramp in downtown Bastrop.

Take-out boat ramp at the Colorado River Refuge.

Looking at the boat ramp toward the parking area at the river refuge.

The put-in and take-out locations are both easy to find and popular, though there is plenty of parking and you can drop your boats off near the ramps if there aren’t spots available close to the ramp. The ramp at Fisherman’s is concrete, while the one at the river refuge is dirt. There was a locked chain across the ramp entrance at the take-out, so we carried our boats up roughly 50 yards to the parking area.

The river refuge boat ramp area is a popular place for people to come and enjoy time by the river. The closest thing to rapids you encounter on this paddle is a few hundred feet from the takeout, and as we finished our trip we saw several groups had pop-up canopies set up along the river to enjoy the view, and to wade into the river to cool off.

After we loaded our boats on our car, we drove to a nearby Buc-ees to grab brisket sandwiches for lunch. We then drove back to Fisherman’s Park, where we had left one of our cars, and ate lunch at a picnic table in the shade before letting our son play on the playscape. The park offers lots of amenities – from a splash pad to a playground to short trail segments to views of the river.

If you’re looking for an exciting stretch of river with rapids, then this isn’t going to be your cup of tea. Try sections of the South Llano and Llano, the Guadalupe, Frio and Medina for that experience. But if you’re wanting to have a relaxing paddle, to get some experience on a river if you’re new to canoeing or kayaking, and perhaps do some fishing, then this is a great option.

We plan to do this run again sometime, perhaps camping overnight when the weather is cooler on one of the islands or sandy sections of the bank that we saw during our trip.