Hiking Near the Hill Country: Comanche Bluffs at Granger Lake

Near the start of the trail, you'll find two old iron and wood plank bridges, Friendship Bridge and Hoxie Bridge. Both were built in the early part of the twentieth century, and later moved here by the Army Corps of Engineers after flooding ravaged the countryside.

The trail frequently alternates between covered forests and exposed plains. When navigating the former, we found ourselves surrounded by dense concentrations of trees, their discarded branches and vines hopelessly tangled and twisted together to form a sort of flora web. Here, with the trail floor generously blanketed with abandoned twigs and leaves and the occasional opening in the overhead canopy allowing streaks of sunlight to penetrate the otherwise dusky path, our fellow Austinist writer couldn't help but compare this to the forests of Peter Jackson's Middle Earth.

Just as often as you're under forest cover, the trail traverses sunsoaked hill-country ridges and patches of prarie. Here, owing to the season and the generous rain we've received, much of the land is dotted with wildflowers - indian paintbrush, bluebonnets, poppies and the like.

It was only after returning from the hike that we learned the fascinating backstory to Granger Lake, sensationalized here for your enjoyment:

In the late nineteenth century after the Civil War, Czech immigrants founded the town of Friendship in a small valley in Trinity County, Texas. By any accounts we were able to dig up, the town consisted of little more than a single paved road, several small farms and residences, and the accoutrements of pre-WWI rural America: sawmill, schoolhouse, blacksmith, Baptist church. On September 10th and 11th of 1921, a torrential thunderstorm and subsequent flood engulfed the small town, leaving in its devastating wake all surrounding bridges in ruins, houses and farms smashed to debris, and dozens drowned in the voracious currents. With the bridges destroyed and mud everywhere, the residents were reduced to traveling by horseback. The boom years following World War II saw most of the remaining townsfolk leaving Friendship, spurred on by the promise of prefab suburbia, shopping malls, and Eisehower's chimeric Interstate Highway Act. Friendship, in its twilight years, was little more than a ghost town. Finally in the late 70s, the rising waters of nearby San Gabriel River reached critical mass, necessitating the construction of a dam. What remained of Friendship sank beneath the waters of the newly created Granger Lake. It was an event so tragic to the displaced families that it later inspired David Daniel's Seven-Star Bird, a collection of melancholic poems self-described as "inspired by a federal act of eminent domain."

We'd recommend the trail for more adventurous weekend warriors, and plan to wear hiking boots that you're willing to dirty up. Several spots along the trail consist of long stretches of half-foot-deep mud, overgrown vegetation, or thick coverings of driftwood. There's little choice but to trudge over these parts. As you can see from the image, we fashioned several crude planks of driftwood to aide ourselves and future travellers with the mud crossings. If you find yourself on this hike, feel free to add your contribution as well.

Comanche Bluff Trail is located near Granger, Texas. You can view a satellite map here.

More Links:

Austin Explorer's Excellent Description
A History of Friendship, Texas
Austin Chronicle Day Trips July 27, 2001
The Official Granger Lake Webpage (it looks like a ten-year old did this page but, shockingly, it's published by the US Army Corps)