If you live on the north, east or south sides of Houston, there are plenty of nearby places to paddle. However, I live in Katy on the west side, where that's not so true. So, I'm always on the lookout for new paddling opportunities on the west side.
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Location Map |
I saw a Facebook post about someone paddling Mill Creek, west of the Brazos River in Washington County, so my ears perked right up. I'd never even heard of it before, much less seen any reports of anyone canoeing it. I therefore decided to look into this possibility a little further.
First, a little history. Human habitation in the area began as early as 7400 B.C. during the Paleo-Indian period. During the early historic era the Indian inhabitants were the Tonkawas. Along came the Spanish explorers who named the creek Palmito, meaning "little palm", for the dwarf palm trees that grew there. Next came the Anglo Texas pioneers in the 1820's. One of these was the Cummins family, who constructed a water-powered saw and grist mill near the mouth of Mill Creek, probably the first mill of its kind in Texas. And thus, the creek became known as Mill Creek.
The main stream flows southeast for fourteen miles to its mouth on the Brazos River, two miles north of Stephen F. Austin State Park. The stream travels through level to moderately sloping terrain that supports grasslands and post oak forest.
The nearest access point to Mill Creek is about 5 miles north of Sealy from I-10.
| Driving Distances: |
| Downtown Houston to Sealy |
47 miles |
| Downtown Katy to Sealy |
21 miles |
I did my internet research and figured out a driving route to check every public road crossing of Mill Creek, to personally visit and determine navigability, water level, flow rate and access points. Then on a cold, windy, overcast day with nothing better to do, I set out to reconnoiter Mill Creek and explore its potential.
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Recon Map
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There are five road crossings where public Mill Creek access is possible, as shown on the map to the right (click to enlarge). I'll now provide the blow-by-blow details of each of these five access points, for their suitability as put-in and take-out locations. I'll cover these starting upstream to the west, and working my way downstream to the east towards the Brazos River.
1) Mill Creek Road
Mill Creek Road is a narrow, lightly-traveled dirt country road. The creek is narrow at this point, but passable, with little current. There is no good access point here. The west bank is wooded with no room to pull off the road, and the east side has private property fence lines crowding the road, leaving no room for safe parking. The bank is very steep and boat handling would be difficult. I rule this location out as an access point. Map Link
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2) 2429
At this creek crossing, there is a second parallel bridge under construction alongside the existing bridge. Traffic on the existing bridge is narrowed and tight due to the construction. I didn't even feel safe walking out to the middle to get good creek photos, because of the high speed passing traffic with no shoulder. I did climb over the concrete barricade wall onto the new bridge, currently unused, to get photos. Because of the construction and heavy equipment activity, there is not good parking available for boaters here, on either the north or south banks. It may have possibilities for the future when construction is complete. The banks have a gentle slope, but are covered in large concrete chunks for erosion control, which would make for difficult ankle-twisting walking, or alongside that, slick mud. I would rule this out as an access point during this bridge construction. It deserves a re-visit when the new bridge is opened to see how things will look then. With some parking space and grass, this could work. Map Link
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3) Highway 36
Highway 36 is a major 4-lane divided highway with high-speed traffic. The creek crossing here is an elevated roadway that sits above not just the creek, but the entire bottomland flood zone. So, the guardrail is hundreds of yards long on each side of the creek, on top of the raised berm above the flood zone. The steep banks on the berm are not conducive to driving vehicles to the creek behind the guard rails. There were tire tracks in the grass behind the guard rail, but I think those were from the lawn-moving tractors. Vehicle tires might not do as well on soft moist bottomland. If you park back at the end of the guard rail and berm, you'll have a portage of several hundred yards to get to the creek. If you manage all of that, the put-in would actually be fairly nice, with a gentle grassy slope. I would not consider this a good access point. Map Link
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Bridge & Creek |
4) FM 331
Farm-to-Market Road 331 is a nice two-lane rural road. From the aerial photo, the south bank looks like it has plenty of parking space, but it's actually unsuitable. The aerial photo doesn't show topography, and the road there is built atop a tall berm with steep sides. So, the road shoulders are too steep for vehicles to negotiate. You can see this in the photo of the USGS water gauge station, below. The north bank, however, is very nice. There is a wide road right-of-way on the east side in front of a farm house, with plenty of parking space, and a gentle grassy slope right down to the waterline. I don't know if the farm house occupants would care for vehicles out front, but it's clearly public right of way. The private property fence line has a big set-back from the roadway, as if the state bought up that strip in future anticipation of widening the road. This is an excellent access point location, and I'd use it. Map Link
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And to my surprise, this location contains a U.S. Geological Service water gauge station. It's recognizable by a box containing a battery and electronics, a solar panel to charge the battery, and an antennae to beam the data up to a satellite where it makes it's way to a central computer. There's also a big green sticker on the side which says "USGS Stream Gaging Station". And from there, we paddlers can check the water conditions from the comfort of our homes. Ain't technology wonderful? As you can see in the one-year water level graph, below, the conditions here are very stable, with only four spikes over the last year. It's a good idea to check these conditions prior to your trip, to ensure the water level is suitable for you. USGS Water Gauge Link
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USGS Graph |
5) Grubbs Road
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Trail |
The last road crossing is Grubbs Road, which is a narrow two lane rural road with deteriorating pavement. It's called Grubbs Road on the south side, and changes its name to Steck Bottom Road on the north side. Due to fence lines, trees and narrow shoulders, there is no vehicle parking on the south side. However, on the north side of the bridge where the road makes a right turn, there is a nice dirt pull-off big enough for about four cars. And that puts you right at the top of a nice trail leading down a gentle slope to the water's edge, on the bridge right-of-way. The trail looks heavily trafficked, probably by fishermen. Just watch out for the eroding gully right at the edge of the trail at one point - don't slip and fall in. This is another excellent access point. Map Link
And that concludes my review of public road crossings of Mill Creek.
Here's some additional useful info for your Mill Creek paddle trip planning:
| River Distances: |
| West of Mill Creek Rd |
questionable |
| Mill Creek Rd to 2429: |
3.5 miles
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2429 to 36:
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3.6 miles |
36 to FM 331:
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5.5 miles |
FM 331 to Grubbs:
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1.4 miles |
Grubbs to Brazos:
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2.0 miles |
| Total distance: |
16.0 miles |
From the mouth of Mill Creek on the Brazos River to FM-1458 at San Felipe is 3.9 miles. So, it would be possible to start in Mill Creek at some point, follow it downstream to the Brazos, take a right turn and continue downstream on the Brazos to the FM-1458 bridge. That would require a vehicle shuttle, rather than an out-and-back to the same location. The back roads between the Mill Creek area and FM-1458 are a real maze - bring a map.
There are lots of possibilities here, with or without running vehicle shuttles. You can do long or short trips of whatever distance you prefer. Pick your pleasure!
Now all that remains to do is to go paddle it!