Thursday, September 1, 2016

Going Beyond 'A Stroll with A Million Dollar View'

One of the first things I did when I moved to Texas Hill Country more than seven years ago was walk Canyon Dam, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project that constrains the Guadalupe River in Comal County. As of this writing, my most recent piece for the Canyon Lake department of the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung newspaper is about the people who walk the dam every day for exercise and relaxation ("A Stroll with A Million Dollar View," August 26, 2016). As usual, I submitted more photos than the paper could actually use, and so have posted some of them here as a visual supplement to my article. 

Canyon dam overlooks the water and its boulder-covered interior face slopes down to it from an elevation of about 60 feet to the east, and the grassy slope of the dam plummets about 200 feet into the largely-wooded area known locally as the Hidden Valley, ending just short of where South Access Road passes by it.

Overlook Park, located along the south side of Canyon Dam, includes its own wooded trails, fishing access, and this pleasant little swimming area. 

A view from the western edge of Canyon Dam, toward where the Guadalupe River flows out of it and continues on in the direction of New Braunfels. A small hydroelectric plant there generates some of the energy used in our area.