Photos of the Flood?

Editor’s Note: This story is about the 2002 flood. To see images from the May 12, 2020 flood in Canyon Lake, click here. 

Comal County wants to see your photos of the famous 2002 flood event that created Canyon Lake Gorge.

This Sunday marks the 14th anniversary of Canyon Lake overtopping its spillway and sending a rush of water down the Guadalupe and into New Braunfels in 2002.

The county has some photos from the flooding, but asks residents and visitors who may have captured the event on film or digital to email images to anthop@co.comal.tx.us. Images also may be uploaded to the county’s Facebook page by clicking here.

Learn more about the historic flood by clicking on this link to Comal County Engineer.

About the gorge:

It took Mother Nature millions of years to lay down Glen Rose limestone during the Cretaceous Era.

A good part of her handiwork washed away in July 2002, when up to 67,000 cubic feet of water-per-second flowed over Canyon Lake’s spillway for six weeks following extensive flooding in the Guadalupe River basin.

The result — carved mostly in just three days — is one of the area’s most-riveting natural wonders, Canyon Lake Gorge. Approximately one mile long, hundreds of yards wide and up to 50 feet deep, the land below the Canyon Lake Spillway features:

• dramatic vistas
• Hidden Valley Fault (within Balcones Fault Zone)
• geologic formations
• beautiful lagoons and waterfalls
• Trinity Aquifer
• biologic succession
• numerous seeps and springs
• 110 million-year-old dinosaur tracks
• extensive marine fossil diversity
• hydraulic dynamics of Glen Rose Limestone

Tours highlight the Power of Water theme to increase visitors’ appreciation of:

• Canyon Reservoir Project and Canyon Lake Gorge through partnership efforts between Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Gorge Preservation Society
• geology of Central Texas
• hydrogeology, especially the interconnectedness of groundwater and surface water
• interrelationship between humans and the physical environment
• process of biologic succession and common plants and animals found in natural communities of the gorge
• appreciation of and respect for natural environment.

For the protection of this unique 40-million-year-old time capsule, only guided tours are available and must be booked in advance.

The three-hour tours are physically demanding and participants must carry their own bottled water. Backpacks are strongly recommended.

For more information, visit canyon gorge.org or call 830-964-5424.