Guadalupe river open for business on 4th of July weekend

This weekend could be one of the most crowded in several years on the Guadalupe River. The river opened back up Thursday after several weeks of dangerous water flow.

Wednesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reduced the water being released from Canyon Lake into the Guadalupe River. Thanks to that the river is now safe enough for tubers this weekend.

Floating the Guadalupe River on the 4th of July is a tradition for many Texans.

"I've been floating this river my entire life, since college, and had a lot of good times up here. Love coming up this way," said Scott Summers who was at the river Thursday.

That's why Scott Summers brought his boys to the Guadalupe this week.

"I've done it for years, been wanting to share it with them, but the drought's keep us off the river for four years now," said Summers.

Thursday, Summers got his wish.

"The Guad is open. We're back fully operational," said Shane Wolf, general manager of Rockin' R River Rides.

"We had a lot of good flow and some good rapids," said Summers.

It has been several years since the Guadalupe has been as high as it is now.

"We went from drought conditions, as all of Texas did, to guided white-water, white-knuckle adventure trips, a three hour trip was now 45 minutes. To this, which is beautiful," said Wolf.

For the last four years, the Guadalupe has been flowing at about 70 cubic feet per second, but since the end of May it has been flowing at about 7 times that amount. Unfortunately that was not safe for those wanting to float the river in a tube.

"We've been following the river, the flow rate, for months now hoping to get a good run in and today was the first day you could get on," said Summers.

Now that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reduced the flow of water into the Guadalupe, people are able to take advantage of it this weekend.

"We've got literally thousands of tubes that have had dust on them for the entire month of June," said Wolf.

This is expected to be a very busy weekend.

"Historically, 4th of July is the biggest and best weekend per say. We have those guys who live and die for 4th of July," said Wolf.

With the Guadalupe open for business it could help take some pressure off of other nearby rivers, like the Comal.

"So we've been putting 18 miles of tubers on two miles of river over there, so they're glad to see us kind of move over. They're glad to see the Guadalupe taking its fair share and putting some relief on those businesses, those customers," said Wolf.