Texas rivers map
Sheet TX-11 · 15 major river basins · longest: Rio Grande · shortest: the Comal, about 2.5 miles
Almost every Texas river runs the same way — down off the plateau or the plains, southeast across the coastal plain, into a bay. The exceptions tell you where you are: the Canadian runs east across the Panhandle, the Pecos runs south through desert, and the Rio Grande runs 1,254 miles along an international border.
Rivers and reservoirs are drawn on the base map at every zoom level. Zoom to 9 or closer to follow a single channel and see the creeks feeding it.
The major rivers
| River | Length | Source | Mouth | Cities on it | Reservoirs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rio Grande | about 1,900 mi total | San Juan Mountains, Colorado | Gulf of Mexico at Boca Chica, below Brownsville | El Paso, Presidio, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Laredo, Rio Grande City, Brownsville | Amistad, Falcon |
| Red River | about 1,300 mi total | Prairie Dog Town Fork, in the Palo Duro Canyon country of the Panhandle | Joins the Atchafalaya and Mississippi in Louisiana | Denison, Texarkana and Wichita Falls all sit near it rather than on it | Lake Texoma |
| Colorado | about 860 mi | Dawson County, near Lamesa on the South Plains | Matagorda Bay | Austin, Bastrop, Smithville, La Grange, Columbus, Wharton, Bay City | E.V. Spence, O.H. Ivie, Buchanan, Inks, LBJ, Marble Falls, Travis, Lady Bird Lake |
| Brazos | about 840 mi | Where the Salt Fork and Double Mountain Fork meet below the Caprock in Stonewall County | Gulf of Mexico at Freeport | Waco, Richmond, Rosenberg, Freeport; Bryan and College Station lie a few miles east of it | Possum Kingdom, Granbury, Whitney |
| Trinity | about 710 mi | Four forks — West, Clear, Elm and East — north and west of the Metroplex | Trinity Bay, at the head of Galveston Bay | Fort Worth, Dallas, Liberty | Livingston, Lewisville, Ray Roberts, Benbrook, Eagle Mountain, Ray Hubbard |
| Pecos | about 900 mi total | Sangre de Cristo Mountains, New Mexico | The Rio Grande, at the upper end of Amistad Reservoir | Pecos | Red Bluff, Amistad |
| Sabine | about 510 mi | Forks in the blackland country northeast of Dallas | Sabine Lake, then the Gulf at Sabine Pass | Longview and Orange; it forms much of the Louisiana border downstream | Toledo Bend, Tawakoni, Fork |
| Neches | about 415 mi | Van Zandt County in East Texas | Sabine Lake, alongside the Neches's own ship channel | Beaumont, Port Arthur; Lufkin lies east of it | Palestine, B.A. Steinhagen; Sam Rayburn sits on the Angelina, its largest tributary |
| Nueces | about 315 mi | Edwards County, on the Edwards Plateau | Nueces Bay at Corpus Christi | Three Rivers, Corpus Christi; Uvalde sits on the Leona beside it | Lake Corpus Christi; Choke Canyon on the Frio |
| San Antonio | about 240 mi | Springs at the head of the river in north San Antonio | Joins the Guadalupe in Refugio County, near the coast | San Antonio, Goliad | None on the main stem; Medina Lake sits on the Medina, its tributary |
| Guadalupe | about 230 mi | Forks in western Kerr County | San Antonio Bay | Kerrville, New Braunfels, Seguin, Gonzales, Cuero, Victoria | Canyon Lake |
| Canadian | crosses the Panhandle | Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado and New Mexico | The Arkansas River in Oklahoma | Borger sits above its breaks; Amarillo lies south of it | Lake Meredith |
| San Jacinto | two short forks | West and East Forks in Montgomery, Walker and San Jacinto counties | Galveston Bay, through the Houston Ship Channel | Houston, Conroe | Lake Conroe, Lake Houston |
| Sulphur | northeast Texas | Forks in Fannin and Delta counties | The Red River, over the line in Arkansas | Texarkana lies just north of it | Wright Patman Lake |
| Lavaca | short coastal river | Southern Fayette County | Lavaca Bay, next to Matagorda Bay | Hallettsville, Edna | Lake Texana, on the Navidad |
| Comal | about 2.5 mi | Comal Springs, the largest spring in Texas, in New Braunfels | The Guadalupe, inside New Braunfels | New Braunfels | None |
Lengths are widely cited approximations. River length depends on which fork you measure from and how tightly you trace the meanders, so figures vary between sources by tens of miles.
Which river is the longest
The Rio Grande is the longest river touching Texas, but most of its length is in Colorado and New Mexico; the Texas portion is the 1,254 miles that form the border with Mexico. For rivers that begin and end inside the state, the answer depends on the measurement. The Colorado is usually given as about 860 miles and the Brazos as about 840, which makes the Colorado the longer of the two — but the Brazos is sometimes measured from the head of its Double Mountain Fork out on the plains, and by that reckoning it is far longer. Both claims appear on historical markers, and both are defensible.
Neither should be confused with the Colorado River of the Grand Canyon. The Texas Colorado rises in Dawson County on the South Plains, runs through the Highland Lakes and Austin, and reaches the Gulf at Matagorda Bay without ever leaving Texas.
Rivers that are borders
Three rivers define the edges of Texas. The Rio Grande separates Texas from Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, and it cuts three canyons — Santa Elena, Mariscal and Boquillas — through the limestone of the Big Bend. The Red River marks most of the Oklahoma line, and its exact position has been argued in court more than once because the channel moves. The Sabine forms the southern half of the Louisiana border before widening into Toledo Bend Reservoir and then Sabine Lake.
Inland, rivers act as boundaries in a quieter way: dozens of county lines follow a river channel, which is why so many Texas counties have one crooked side.
The spring-fed rivers
The clear, cold rivers of the Hill Country behave differently from the rest. They rise from the Edwards Aquifer along the Balcones Fault Zone and run at nearly constant temperature year round. Comal Springs in New Braunfels is the largest spring system in the state and produces a river only about two and a half miles long before it joins the Guadalupe. San Marcos Springs feeds the San Marcos River in San Marcos, which joins the Guadalupe near Gonzales. The Frio, Sabinal, Medina, Llano, Pedernales and Blanco all do the same on a smaller scale, and all of them can go from ankle-deep to a wall of water within an hour during a thunderstorm — the reason the region is called Flash Flood Alley.