Another COE Campground and River Road

Location: Potter's Creek Campground (Corps of Engineers); Canyon Lake, Texas
click pictures to enlarge

This is Stop #5

This is the fifth Corps of Engineers campground in a row on this trip. If you don't know where Canyon Lake, Texas is located, it is in the heart of the Texas Hill Country and about 45 minutes north of San Antonio. Obviously it is on Canyon Lake which was created by damning up the Guadalupe River. The lake was created for flood control and recreation with construction being completed in 1964. The purpose of flood control failed in 2002 when 34 inches of rain fell within a one week period of time. The Corps was unprepared for this unusually high rainfall event and the excess water started passing over the spillway. The purpose of the spillway is to protect the dam from failing due to high water. When the lake gets too high, water is bypassed over the spillway. Well, back in 2002, the flood waters over the spillway were seven feet deep and continued flowing for six weeks. This water carved a gorge downstream of the spillway that exposed dinosaur tracks and fossils. If this story sounds familiar, it may be because the same thing happened at a Corps dam in Iowa City, Iowa. I learned of it when I was camped there a few years ago. You can read about it here: https://gozatravels.blogspot.com/2016/08/headed-west-and-375-millions-years-ago.html

This is the spillway where the water was seven feet thick. You can only see it at a couple of places where the trees/shrubs have been removed from the observation point.

This is part of the Observation Hill near the dam. At one time I bet it was great. However, the scrub trees/shrubs have grown up along the fence to where you have to back off up the hill just to see the lake. 

Today, just about every inch of the shoreline of Canyon Lake is taken up with residential or commercial property. At least there are several public parks and access points. A battle for water is brewing between the Lake Authority and the cities of San Antonio and Austin. Each city is trying to get water from the lake because their populations are growing. We will see how that goes in the future. 

This is the first time I've ever been turned away from checking into a Corps of Engineers campground before 3:00 pm. I arrived, as usual, around 2:00 and was told I had to wait until 3:00. I asked if there was a place I could park while waiting the hour and was told "not around here". At first I thought the attendant wanted me to back out of the gate area, but then he raised the gate and told me I could turn around just past the gate, but that I better not go any farther into the campground. I turned around and went to a gas station a few miles away to fuel up and wait the hour. While waiting, I got online to look at the campground reviews and found several reviewers complaining about the 3:00 time limit. The change occurred about a year or so ago. I'm pretty sure this "policy enforcement" is coming from higher-ups in the Corps chain of command and not just the volunteer working at the entrance, but I can't understand the reason. With a 100+ campsite campground turning over a third of more of their campsites per day means 30+ RV's are showing up at about the same time. You would think they would appreciate some showing up early just to ease the rush. Oh well, it wasn't too bad, just frustrating.

This was a Walmart Rest Stop on the way to the campground. I'm posting it here to show the price of gas.

The campsite is great. That is the Guadalupe River in the background which is the backwaters of Canyon Lake.

The Guadalupe River runs downstream of the dam and of course it has a road right alongside called The River Road. That was one of the reasons for me stopping here was to ride that road. I was surprised at the amount of commercialization along the road. Any available land was taken up by businesses. It is not an undisturbed nature area, but there were stretches where you could see the way it was originally. I was only mildly disappointed, but it's OK since it ended well.

There is just something about a drive along a river that makes it fun.

I picked a good time for the drive. I bet it is bumper to bumper in the warmer months.

One of the views from the bridge crossings

The reason it's called the hill country. The river is just to the right of me when taking this picture.

One of the surprises along the road. Whoever hung it there did a great job. About a half mile before this was a Texas state flag hung in the same way.

After finishing the drive on the River Road I found myself at an HEB grocery. Well, I had to stop in to get some freshly made tortillas, which I've become addicted. I'm just glad they keep assuring me there isn't any calories or cholesterol in the tortillas when I ask if they have been removed. I'm beginning to think I may be missing something though, because all of the ladies doing the cooking just sort of laugh a little and say "Si, loco Senor". I'm interpreting that to mean "yes, senior person". I'm not sure what a train has to do with it though,,,, loco? locomotion? locomotive?. Oh well, I'll keep enjoying them as long as I'm in Texas.

Looking out the upper window in Liberty while the sun goes down. 

 Maybe just one more warm tortilla with honey. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.