Pedernales Falls State park

One of my very favorite weekend activities has been making rode trips to see different parts of Texas. For these one day trips, I will plan the day out the night before, thereby giving myself the chance at an early start and a late return. I will fill my 72 oz hydration bladder and typically carry another two 24 oz water bottles. Regardless of whether I bring my mountain bike or hiking boots, I take my hydration seriously as any sportsmen should. I like to take a few extras in my Camelback backpack including mosquito spray and sunscreen. One of my favorite lunch recipes is rice cakes. For this I take 1/2 cup of uncooked rice, throw it in my rice cooker and once cooked I will add honey, Worcestershire Sauce, and Soy Sauce to taste. I will then wrap the sticky mass in aluminum foil lined with wax paper. This inexpensive recipe keeps well and is easy to make.

For the naturalist, Texas has a rich and diverse selection of state funded State Parks. Texas State Parks provides a useful pamphlet whereby the parks are classified by different travel regions as seen in the first map below. These regions are named according to historical or geological significance. The travel regions seem to roughly correlate with the natural regions as seen in the second map below. A careful look at the second map will make it very clear that traveling around the state of Texas, one may be exposed to numerous ecosystems and biomes from piney forests to rolling hills, to swampy marshlands.

When I spontaneously opted to make the three hour motor jaunt to Pedernales Falls State Park, I had only once been to Austin and the term "Hill Country" meant nothing to me. Once I escaped the sprawling Houston metro area, the drive was easy. My GPS was on the blink but I found my way, trailing the Austin-Bound politically left bumper stickers and Subarus.

There is a reason they say "Keep Austin Weird." I was charmed as I sped past the numerous ranches, rest areas, weathered antique shops, and bizarre dealers of recycled metal turned art. The density of commerce steadily increased as I approached the southern limits of Austin. In addition to the quaint mom and pops I would be remiss if I forgot to mention Buc-ee's rest stop, known for its iconic beaver, childish billboard advertising style, and big-box like size and appeal. West Austin seemed to have another flavor entirely. Less weathered and more eco-touristy, 290 West snakes up and down through affluent sprawling suburbs, and is littered with low density commercial areas. It is speckled with pizza parlors, sports stores, and family grocers. It is here that I got my first glimpse of the Hill Country topography.

After leaving 290 and having the chance to drive past every configuration of cottage, ranch, shed and creek, the Park entrance was neither easy to spot, nor easy to miss. As is the case with many parks of this type, the gate house where one goes to pay their small fee, grab a map, and get oriented sits miles within the park boundaries. After paying my fee, I proceeded to the falls themselves as pictures below but with considerably less water. This formation is the namesake of the park.

The "Falls" at Pedernales

Visitors are welcome to traipse around on the rocks and in the water. However, some visitors were dissapointed to find that the namesake of the park isn't a majestic waterfall of the type you might see in Las Vegas. During my first visit, I found myself defending the park to a young man of about my same age, on its merits of beauty. He thought the lack of waterfall was a real bummer and a complete let down.

Instead, the significance of the rock formation pertains more to its history and geology than to its cinema like beauty. The Pedernales River begins to the west near Frederickburg and flows directly through the park. This is by no means a major river but it can become extremely large and powerful within minutes during a rain. There are numerous videos on youtube such as the one below, showing the powerful hill country flash floods which sculpt the park and serve as an awesome contrast to the beautiful tranquility of the trickling stream pictured above.

Pedernales falls also offers a primitive camping area in which guests are required to carry in any water, food, tents and gear over three miles of hills. I was also pegged as a local trail authority during that leg by an ill prepared family carrying copious amount of loose camping paraphanalea. They wanted to know how much further they had until they reached their campsite, as I was hiking in the opposite direction.

Scattered throughout the park are remnants of 150 year old mortar-less stone settler dwellings, from the period of initial western settlements. One such settlement is tucked away near the back of the park next to a tiny natural spring called Jones Spring. The tiny crumbling one-room reminded me of scenes from the 1960s film, The Magnificent Seven.

The next time I am back in Hill Country I will try to get a reservation for primitive camping. However I will be sure not to pitch my tent too close to the riverbed, so as to avoid an unintended early morning swim.