Brazos River in Texas

Trip Overview

This was my first paddling experience and I thought it was a great river to start on. We camped the first night at Rochelle's and then the next morning loaded up and took the shuttle to the put in point. The first stretch of river was very smooth and easy, the going was slow, probably due to the fact that only two people had any experience. Along the river there are many places that you could explore and lots of wildlife to see along the way. We saw lots of birds, supposedly a few snakes (but the sightings came from 10 year old girls in my canoe and I didn't see anything so who really knows) and lots of cows. The first night we stayed in an adorable little meadow that was quite possibly private, but didn't have any signs saying so, so we stopped. In the morning we had a couple of visiting cows watch us prepare our breakfast. Right after we started day two we hit our first set of rapids, nothing big but one canoe did flip, they leaned away from the edge when they hit it I think. The biggest obstacles were some pretty decent sized rocks and some cows that were in the middle of it all. The rest of the day was about the same, with some big flat sections where we were fighting the wind, and some fun little rapids that were good practice for bigger things in the future. All in all it was a great beginner river with some good rapids and beautiful scenery including some amazing limestone rock formations. There were a few small sections where we had to get out and drag but it wasn't too big of a deal. For the most part it was a perfect depth for paddling with some nice deep channels thrown in there. Look into it for a nice two day trip for beginners.

Accommodations:

Camping is all primitive. Many sections along the river may be private.

Fees:

I think there might have been a camping fee at Rochelle's but I'm not really sure because I didn't handle any of that on the trip.