Snaking through the Lower Rio Grande Valley for roughly 90 miles is a paddler’s dream, a scenic waterway teeming with wildlife, yet public access points to it for non-motorized watercraft are few and far between.
The situation is about to improve. The city of Harlingen has plans to build a kayak/canoe launch on the un-dredged portion of the Arroyo Colorado where it flows under North Ed Carey Drive, at the as-yet-undeveloped McCullough Park just south of Hugh Ramsey Nature Park.
The city submitted a grant application to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department early last year. Javier Mendez, Harlingen director of parks and recreation, said TPWD approved an $89,000 planning grant for the project but that the city is still waiting to receive the contract from the state that will allow design, engineering and permitting to move forward.
“We got the grant,” he said. “It was approved and then it goes before the Parks and Wildlife commission. They send us the contract and then it gets executed with us locally.”
Mendez said the fact that many state employees are working remotely due to COVID may have slowed down the process, though the project is going to happen. Parks and recreation originally submitted an application for two launches, one at McCullough Park and another where Dixieland Road crosses the Arroyo, with a construction grant request for $595,920, though the focus is on McCullough Park for now, he said.
In addition to the launch, the project calls for restrooms, parking and a circular drive with a 10-foot-wide asphalt trail down to the Arroyo itself. The circular drive, parking and restrooms would be built atop a bluff that makes up part of the park, Mendez said.
“There’s already a trail that goes from the circular area to the bank,” he said. “We’re going to use that as the access point for people to launch their kayaks. Where it hits the Arroyo, that’s where we’re going to put the launch area. … When we do these improvements I think it will be a huge asset for the city.”
Danny Cuevas is the owner of South Texas Paddlers, which offers educational kayak tours that feature the “history of bodies of water, what’s in it, what’s around it.”
“We do the Arroyo,” he said. “We do different resacas in Brownsville, like Dean Porter Park, Paseo de la Resaca, and then we go over toward the Port of Brownsville and we’ll do the ship channel and Lake San Martin, and hopefully expanding into Port Isabel here soon.”
Cuevas said he welcomes the Harlingen project since it will improve rare public access to the Arroyo for paddlers. He said the waterway hitherto has been almost exclusively the domain of fishermen and cargo transporters.
Cuevas also chairs the working group for Caracara Trails, the 428-mile-long network of trails under development linking communities around the Lower Valley, and said the McCullough Park launch will link the city to the paddle-trail piece of Caracara Trails.
“That’s hopefully going to an 80-mile trail leading from up to Harlingen down to Laguna Atascosa, and then over toward Port Isabel and then down toward (South Padre Island), he said.
The hike-and-bike segments of the trail system have taken priority so far, logical since hikers and bikers likely outnumber kayakers, Cuevas said, though “we’ll be pushing paddling trails pretty hard this coming year.” McCullough Park will make a great launch, he said, adding that paddlers will be able to head upstream and return to the same spot, or paddle downstream to the Rio Hondo public boat ramp — which is also in line for a makeover.
“They’re going to have new boat ramps, new kayak launches, RV slots and I believe a nature trail there,” Cuevas said.
From McCullough Park to Rio Hondo is a trip of several miles, more than half of it scenic, un-dredged Arroyo before paddlers enter the much wider, dredged portion at the Port of Harlingen, where tiny watercraft share the water with massive barges. The 90-mile-long Arroyo, which originates southwest of Mission and empties into the Lower Laguna Madre, handles wastewater for surrounding communities and was once heavily polluted, though clean-up efforts over several years have paid off substantially, Cuevas said.
“The water was very bad before but has been cleaned up and continues to be monitored,” he said.
For its un-dredged Arroyo tours, STP launches from the bridge under Cemetery Road at the port, though the dirt track leading to the bank is too steep and slippery for most vehicles, so the kayaks are carried down the slope to the Arroyo.
Public access to the Arroyo will remain limited even with the Harlingen launch, though Cuevas said an inexpensive private option is The Spot Fishing Rental, on the Arroyo a little over a mile southwest of the port as the crow flies and accessible from FM 106/East Harrison Avenue.
“He’s a great person, doesn’t charge too much just to allow you to launch a kayak and go,” he said.
Meanwhile, Cuevas is working on plans for emergency phones and other amenities along the waterway where it’s part of Caracara Trails.
“There’s a lot to come for the Arroyo,” he said.
