93. Enjoy the Area's Beautiful Resacas

Editor's Note: This is the seventh installment in a series titled, "Top 100 Things to do in the South Padre Island/Brownsville Area," designed to help the visitor get the full experience of this beautiful tropical region.

93. Enjoy the area's beautiful resacas.

Resacas are former channels of the Rio Grande River found in the southern half of Cameron County. Resacas are naturally cut off from the river, having no inlet or outlet. Before land development and water control in Cameron County, floodwater from the Rio Grande drained into resacas from surrounding terrain. Over the years portions of the resacas silted up and became bottomland, forming the remaining stretches of channel into a series of unconnected horseshoe bends. They serve as habitats for waterfowl, beaver, nutria, various species of
amphibians and reptiles, including alligators and various species of fish. James Lewellyn Allhands, Railroads to the Rio (Salado, Texas: Anson Jones Press, 1960).

This magnificent palm grove can be found on 803 near Los Fresnos on the north side of Hwy 100.

You want serene? Try the resacas at Dean Porter Park in Brownsville across the street from the zoo.

The resacas at Gladys Porter Park are the best ones to have a picnic by. The palm trees there are tall and cast much shade. They are also the best place to feed the many ducks.

People who live on resacas just have to go to their backyards to fish.