Floating TexasAbout Floating Texas
Floating Texas is a map-first web app helping recreational users see current river conditions and discover access points across Texas. We built it so kayakers, tubers, swimmers, and anyone heading to the water can answer one question fast: is the river runnable today, and where do I get in?
What we cover
We focus on the iconic float-and-paddle rivers of Texas Hill Country: the Guadalupe, Comal, San Marcos, and Frio. Each river has its own page with live conditions, access points, and trends going back up to a year.
- 4Rivers
- 12USGS gauges
- 19Access points
How it works
Live water levels come from the USGS Instantaneous Values service, refreshed every fifteen minutes. We translate cubic-feet-per-second readings into a letter grade (A–F) using per-gauge thresholds we’ve calibrated for tubing and paddling — what counts as ideal flow on the Comal is very different from the Guadalupe.
For trends, we pull historical Daily Values from USGS so you can see how the river has been behaving over the last week, month, quarter, or year. The 0–100 score and ⚠️ high-water markers are derived from the same thresholds, so the dashboard numbers always agree with the headline grade.
Why it exists
River enthusiasts in Texas didn’t have a centralized, friendly way to check conditions before heading out, or to discover access points they hadn’t been to before. Most existing data is scattered across raw USGS pages, outfitter websites, or local knowledge passed friend-to-friend. Floating Texas pulls all of it onto one map and one set of pages, free, with no account required.
Get in touch
Found a bug, a missing access point, or want to suggest a river we should add? Drop us a line.
Changelog
What’s new on the site, in order.
About page and contact form
Added an About page describing the project's mission and how the data works, plus a contact form for feedback, missing access points, or river suggestions.
Trends dashboards on every river
Each river page now shows streamflow (CFS), a 0–100 score, and gauge height as line charts with a 7-day / 30-day / 90-day / 1-year selector. High-water and flood days are flagged with markers. The homepage gained a faded score chart behind the hero — hover any river to highlight its line.
Interactive map explorer
New /explorer page with a sidebar river selector, gauge markers, and access-point pins. Gauge timestamps now display in Central time.
Site launched
Floating Texas goes live: live USGS conditions for the Guadalupe, Comal, San Marcos, and Frio rivers, with letter grades and access-point info across the Hill Country.