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We’re looking forward to this project. It will be the only one in Harlingen, obviously, so it will be heavily used.
HARLINGEN — Winding across some of the city’s most rugged stretches of Tamaulipan thorn forest, the Arroyo Colorado is making way for Harlingen’s first kayak launch.
Beneath bushy McCullough Park’s ragged bluff, city officials are planning to build a wooden deck along the arroyo’s banks from which paddlers might soon be launching their kayaks and canoes as part of the growing sport along the 90-mile channel gushing through fresh and saltwater currents.
The launch site would become one of the area’s first public access points along the channel winding across much of the Rio Grande Valley on its way to the Laguna Madre.
“It’s something different,” said Javier Mendez, Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Harlingen. “We’ve been talking about this for quite a while. We’re looking forward to this project. It will be the only one in Harlingen, obviously, so it will be heavily used.”
The kayak launch will help attract paddlers to the arroyo’s trail system, which city officials are planning to develop into a tourist attraction.
PLANNING DESIGN
Last week, city commissioners agreed to enter into a $140,000 contract with Brownsville-based Hanson Professional Services for the project’s design and planning funded through a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department grant.
After the six-month design phase, officials plan to search for funding to finance construction, Mendez said.
At undeveloped McCullough Park, just south of Hugh Ramsey Nature Park, officials are planning to build restrooms and a parking lot atop the bluff overlooking the arroyo under the Ed Carey Drive bridge, he said.
At the end of a trail, they’re planning to build the wooden deck from which paddlers will launch their kayaks and canoes, he said.
“It’s accessible, and there’s not a lot of activity,” Mendez said. “We thought it’d be an ideal location.”
GROWING SPORT
In the area, kayaking is turning into a growing sport, Mendez said.
“It’s a big activity,” he said.
For the project, Mendez is talking with Danny Cuevas, owner of South Texas Paddlers in Brownsville, who’s been kayaking the arroyo for about seven years.
“I think it’s going to be ginormous,” Cuevas said of the project, noting the launch site would become one of the area’s first public access points.
It’s accessible, and there’s not a lot of activity. We thought it’d be an ideal location.
Along the arroyo, Cuevas offers educational kayak tours.
“It’s a 90-mile-long body of water. If you want to explore it, it’s amazing,” he said. “Once you get out there, it’s like another world — and it’s right here in our backyard.”
Along the arroyo, nilgai and javelina roam the bushy banks, which have become hot spots for nature buffs, Cuevas said.
“It’s such a unique experience being on brackish water, being able to appreciate all the flora we’ve got around here and seeing all the different birds in a unique way because you’re floating so you get a lot closer, seeing how they live in the wild,” he said.
