Enjoy the Texas Hill Country

This 125 acre preserve offers nine different trails through different habitats – dry dessert like, hilly typical Texas Hill Country with over 300 Madrone trees and 37 native grasses and a canyon with pond – built by the Pipe Creek -, with big Spanish oaks and Escarpment cherries and 200 year old junipers. You first [...]

This is an 81 acre natural area located mostly west of the Blanco River, just below the bridge at IH35 in San Marcos. Blanco Shoals is unique in that it is an undeveloped riparian area, which is projected to remain that way except for a few trails to be built. This area contains high bank [...]

This is another of those beautiful privately owned ranches available to the public and this one is located 17 miles southwest of Mason off RR 1871 in the northwest portion of the Hill Country. You can go here for camping, hiking, mountain biking and wildlife viewing activities. Guided kayak trips on the Llano River also [...]

This is one of those relatively small lakes that is a great place to go swimming because no motorized boats are allowed on the water. This also is a good place to go fishing and they have hiking trails and a butterfly garden. They also have a bird watching blind for you to use. Exit [...]

This 200 acre natural area is the home to numerous bird species, including some endangered species. The site is available to the public on the second weekend of each month, but you have to make arrangements beforehand because all hiking and birding must be conducted with one of the site’s guides.

This is a nice, but relatively small park where lots of people take their dogs to visit with other dogs. It used to be an off-leash park, but now you have to keep Fido on a lead during your visit. You can play around with your dog near the creek at the main part of [...]

This park is located in Driftwood, and is across the street from the famous Salt Lick restaurant. Better for wading or horizontal body immersing than for swimming most of the time, but still this is a nice place with lots of shade. The level of rowdiness exhibited by some of the visitors to this park [...]

This famous swiming hole is located about a mile upstream from Barton Springs on Barton Creek. You could also get to it by taking the Spyglass Road access point and then turning left onto the trail once you get down to the creek. This should be a good size pool when the water is up [...]

This RV Park allows tent camping and you can use the grounds for hiking or to explore the spring fed ponds. They also feature horseback riding and offer hayrides. As an added bonus, they are very close to the famous Horseshoe so you can do some tubing while you are here. Daisy Duke’s is located [...]

This recently created gorge, at least in geologic time, was etched out of the landscape by tremendous amounts of water billowing over the spillway in 2002, which was the first time since that had happened since the dam was constructed. This is a very impressive feature and it serves as a reminder of just how [...]