We always recommend that folks begin at City Park in San Marcos and end up at our campground. That is a six-mile trip and involves mostly flat water with just a few swift places. It generally takes about five to six hours which allows time for basic instruction and lunch. Only the first, Rio Vista Dam is runnable - the others should be portaged. As always, it is important to have someone along who is familiar with the river, and the group should be kept together to avoid misplacing someone.
Downstream trips involve whitewater.
The upper tubing stretch is approximately one mile long and takes about one hour. If you choose to tube in the vicinity of our campground, there are several options. The easiest trip is to tube from one end of our campground to the other, which takes approximately thirty minutes. Under no circumstances should a person attempt to tube from San Marcos to Pecan Park Retreat. Cumming's Dam, located approximately 1.5 miles upstream from Pecan Park causes a long lake - not difficult for a canoe to traverse, but too long and slow for a tube.