Checking Out Pedernales State Park

On Monday, I took a little roadtrip up to Blanco State Park where my friend Sage was staying. Blanco is a real nice small park but this post is about Pedernales State Park. We hopped in the car and headed north to Johnson City. Pedernales is about 8 or 9 miles west of there.

This park has a lot of hiking available. My son and his family hiked there a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. If you want to hike on the trails, you might be interested in this interactive map they have available online.

Sage and I were more interested in the camping area so that is where we headed first. The camping area is nice, sites are pretty well spaced and paved. There is shade available as well as more open sites. They have water and electric plus a dump station. We did notice that quite a few sites were closed. I know they are building a new restroom and I think they are working on electric in some areas but there were plenty of sites available on a beautiful sunny Monday. 

We stopped to take a picture of a very interesting camper and were invited to check it out. Kids sleep very comfortably on the second story. Mom and Dad occupy the trailer itself and have plenty of room to stretch out.

While you do have to cook outside, their little kitchen has everything you need. There is a bigger awning that can go out over the kitchen area and another one that can attach out on the side where the tree is located. Oh, and I forgot to mention that there is a room that zips on to the bottom of the tent area on the right side for longer stays.

This family is prepared to go anywhere with gas cans and extra tires attached.

I didn't take any other pictures of other sites but Sage was busy writing down numbers of shady sites. The site above was a good example of a more open site. Since I have a 5th wheel, I am always interested making sure that roadways and sites down have branches hanging down to attack my roof. This park was pretty well trimmed.

Next we headed to a scenic overlook area.

It was a bit of a hike (for us anyway) but still very doable.

The overlook is to the river.

The most strenuous part of the trail to the overlook is going back up the long series of steps near the end of the trail. They were in good shape but a railing would have been really nice.

Next we headed over to the swimming area. There is a parking lot at each of these trails (and no, these are not the real hiking trails that more experienced hikers will be looking for).

The swimming area is near the falls.  You cannot swim at the overlook area that I showed above.

There is a nice path heading down to the river that even has a couple of rustic tree benches.

The water in this pool was a really beautiful blue...this picture doesn't quite capture the actual color.

We stopped at the overlook area. The "falls" is rather flat and not too impressive with the water level at this time of year.

There is a path all along the river area down below us and there were a number of people climbing around on the rocks, laying down sunning, and just having a good time.

This is a better view of the falls area leading to the pool. With heavy rains, the water can explode through this area very quickly so one would need to be real observant during those seasons.

 

It was the first trip to this park for both of us and we really enjoyed it. I think we will both be camping here at some time in the future. Maybe I will see you there.