Camping in Central Texas

F

Fievel121

2,500+ Posts
Changed our mind from Arkansas to the Austin Area.

Here's what I have so far. Any recomendationd/comments?

Sunday
• 9:00 AM Leave for : Colorado Bend State Park
o Mapquest Directions
• 1:00 PM: Arrive in Lampasas; stop at Walmart for groceries, ice & wood. Eat lunch
o The park is west of Lampasas, southeast of San Saba. From the intersection of US Highways 281 and 183 in Lampasas, take FM 580 west 24 miles to Bend and follow the signs 4 miles to the park entrance.
• 2:00 PM Arrive at Colorado Bend State Park. Set up camp; hike Gorman Trails
Monday
• 8:00 – Wake up; eat breakfast
• 9:00 – leave for Longhorn Caverns; Directions Located in Burnet County, Texas, USA
Six miles west of U.S. Hwy. 281,
on Park Road 4
• 1:00 eat lunch in Burnett, head to LBJ; Directions
• 5:00 head back to Colorado Bend Start Park

Tuesday
• 8:00 – Wake up; eat breakfast, break down campsite
• 9:00 – head to Austin; Directions
• 10:00 Tour State Capital
• 12:00 Eat lunch on 6th strett
• 1:00 Tour Campus
• 3:00 head home
 
Much better than Arkansas.

If you have time in Austin the Texas State Museum is worth seeing.

texasflag.gif
 
Longhorn Caverns is pretty crazy. Not your normal cave. It's all limestone. Really sweet though.

Highlander Restaurant and Steakhouse in Burnet is good. Great chicken fried steaks. or of course, take a drive to Marble Falls and hit up the Bluebonnet Cafe
 
My recommendation is to just do one park.

In the general area, I have been to Pedernales Falls SP, Guadalupe River SP, Inks Lake SP, Colorado Bend SP, Garner SP...

I recommend spend a weekend at Inks Lake. Plus if you do that, the drive to Longhorn Cavern SP is very very short. They are like 3 miles apart on the same park road.

Inks Lake is very nice. Big fan of it.
 
Go through Llano on the way there instead and eat at Cooper's for lunch on Sunday!!

Colorado Bend is a great state park. It's really relaxed and quiet and the trails are all awesome. Gorman is really cool but my favorite is the Spicewood Springs trail...just beautfiul and awesome swimming too in the summer
 
A friend of mine interned at Colorado Bend SP one summer at UT. He was a geology major and lived on the SP and did some of the guided tours. He is much younger than me (younger brother of some good friends of mine). We visited him once that summer and went camping there. It is very small and very much empty. But had a good time.
 
Colorado Bend is a great park. Many a white bass has met it's demise by my hand there. Be careful if there's a big rain storm, I got stuck there after the only little bridge in and out of the place got flooded.
 
ahh.. yes.. will probably sidetrack the thread but when i lived on lake travis, it was near the bee creek mouth. i would ride my bicycle down bee creek rd to bee creek and wait for the flash flood to come in. this is elsewhere, but a lot of what we'd see all the time minus the trees. the water was never this dirty though.

flash flood
 
There's also Kerrville State Park, which is in a pretty area, and an interesting town nearby. And McKinney Falls State Park just outside Austin. Get on the Texas Parks and Wildlife site, and they have links to all (I think) state parks and what facilities they offer.
 
I also was going to suggest Inks, as Longhorn Caverns are spitting distance from there. A trip to the Blubonnet in Marble falls or the longer drive out to Coopers in Llano would be good day breakers.

I think you can rent canoes on Inks as well. I do vividly remember doing a 5K walk at Inks that I ran. ran right up on top of a deer and the thing didn't move, let me pet it and I ran on.
 
^^^^ Damn

Okay for those in the know. I'm taking a 6 year old and a 12 year old. We want to go for a hike. Obviously nothing to hard, around 4-5 miles (which was why I was thinking Colorado Bend, the Gorman Falls hike is about 4.5). Which places have the best hikes.
 
I hope this trip wasn't scheduled for this weekend, because the weather looks cold and rainy. I camped at a Nature Conservancy property during a burn ban, and they still allowed camping stoves in some areas. So definitely check at the entry station for the rules in effect regarding fires.
 
We leave next Sunday (The 15th). It looks like its raining in Central Texas most of this week. But I doubt it will be enough to kill the ban.

I have a coleman stove I'm brining as a backup.
 
They almost always allow stoves and grills. In fact, I've always been allowed to use charcoal in the grills they have on site at each campsite. The burn ban usually just applies to ground/camp fires.

The crappy thing is that those are the best part of camping.
 
Anyone camping in Central Texas this weekend may want to contact the particular state park/camping area to check the current burn ban status.

I am camping through the weekend at Guadalupe River State Park. I just called them directly and they have lifted the burn ban after receiving 3" of rain. Great news. Hopefully other counties will be able to do the same. Camping is so much better with fire!
hookem.gif
 
Thanks for everyone's suggestions and advice. The Trip went very well. Would highly recommend Inks Lake State Park. The burn ban was not in effect while we were camping so we lucked out.

Here are two reasons I love Texas

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Fievel, I actually recommended Inks Lake. :)

As soon as I saw that picture, I thought he went to Inks b/c I have an identical picture.

Here is a picture that I took before jumping in Devil's Hole...........

InksLakeStateParkMay2008028.jpg
 
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