2021-09-29 Blanco and Blanco State Park TX

After I left the rally at Rockport, I headed northwest to Blanco State Park. As long as I was already out in the RV, I wanted to take advantage of it. I've driven past Blanco for years and even drove through it back when I had the 5th wheel. At the time, the branches over the road and the sites were a little too low to chance it with the 5th wheel. The park is small and very popular so hard to get reservations. I was able to get three nights in the middle of the week.

This park has been around a long time. It was established in 1933. The work done by the CCC in the main pavilion, stone dams, bridges, and picnic tables along the river is beautiful.

This is the dam. You can swim above the dam. Lots of people visit during the day to do just that. There is a day use area all along the river after you enter the park. To get to the camping area you have to cross a road that sits inches above the water. In case of the river flooding, everyone camping would either have to stay as the campground is higher than the river but I think they also have at least one emergency exit road.

The campground is in the area south of the river.

It's a beautiful area with lots of trees and shade.....and you can easily walk into town. It's only about 6 blocks from the entrance.

The river does flood on occasion. The last big flood created quite a bit of havoc in 2015.

The park has two camping circles. The smaller one has about 8 full hookup 50 amp sites. The other circle is larger. The sites on the outside of the circle have 30 amp water and electric. The sites on the inner side of the circle are 30 amp full hookup sites. All have covered wood picnic tables like you can see in this photo. The sites on the outside of the loop also have tent pads.

The camping area also has shelters with wood louvers on three sides to block the wind. They are fully screened and have a picnic table inside as well as outside. They also have electric.

Harley and I took a walk all along the river.  There are picnic tables on both sides. There is one really long one built of stone by the CCC which I didn't get a picture to put here. It is as long as 4 picnic tables end to end.

The scenery is beautiful with lots of open space.

This was my site on the outside of the 30 amp loop. No one on my door side.

And no one on my back side.

 

It was a nice big site.

I also took a drive up to Pedernales Falls State Park which is east of Johnson City. If you love hiking, this is a good park for you. It has lots of trails. Some sites have shade, some are sunny. It's a drive and a long walk down a hill to the water so it isn't my favorite park. During the week, there were a number of open sites.

Speaking of open sites, most of us Texas campers were thrilled with a new Texas parks rule which says that if you do not show up or call by noon the day after your reservation starts, your reservation is cancelled and the site is put back out for reserving. Since we have to pay in advance, you lose your money but the state makes money by renting again and, the best part, someone else gets the chance to go camping. It's a great solution especially since it appears that a lot of the new campers reserve spots at several parks and then just go to one without bothering to cancel the other. After seeing empty sites at Blanco that were marked reserved but never used and never appeared back on the website, it appears that a great new rule is not being enforced by park staff. I even asked a ranger at Pedernales Falls State Park about it and he said they didn't usually bother. Both the state parks system and campers are losing out here by inaction on local park staff.

Blanco State Park, Texas

Friday was our day to drive up to Marble Falls to meet up with the grandkids and bring them back for the weekend.  Dave was working so my son Steve (kids Dad) and I decided to leave several hours earlier than normal for the 6:00pm meet up time.  We wanted to check out Blanco State Park and spend some time looking around Marble Falls before picking the kids up.  Blanco State Park is right on the edge of Blanco TX so you can easily walk into town from the park if you are staying there.  The Ranger's station is on the town side of the river.  

Once you are in the park, there is a road on each side of the Blanco River with a low water crossing to get to the other side.  There are nice picnic tables and grills for day use and lots of people come here to fish from the banks.

We saw this sign for a Wildlife Viewing Station with a small building with screen hanging down the open sides.  Unfortunately, my picture of the inside of the building didn't come out clearly.  Inside there were benches and the far side had slanted glass windows looking out to a bird feeding area.  They even had books in there so you could look up any birds you didn't know.

There were plenty of campers with RVs at the park because some people stay for the winter.  It's the only time they allow people to stay more than two weeks.  But there was also a group camping in a tent and covered hammock and using the screened shelter.  I don't know if anyone was sleeping in the shelter but they had kayaks on hand.

There are two camping circles.  One has full hook-ups and the other has water and electric.  It's a small but nice camping camping area with shade trees and nice bathrooms.  There is also a stone pavilion.

These two RVs were in the full hook-up area and were the camphosts.

This is a shot of the low water crossing going back to the entrance.  Although you can't seem them in this shot, there were about 6 fishermen here and another 4 or 5 on the other side of the river.  If you drive past the park on Hwy 281 in the summer, you will see people having fun splashing and swimming in the river

We were about 15 minutes out of Marble Falls when we got a call from the kids mother saying that granddaughter Morgan was throwing up.  After several bouts of that, Steve told their mother to turn around and go home and we would drive all the way to Brownwood to pick up Cameron.  Although Morgan was disappointed that she didn't get to spend the weekend with Daddy, Cameron would have been broken-hearted had he not gotten to come either.  Steve drives about 2000 miles round trip from Florida every month to spend the weekend with the kids so not seeing either of them was just not acceptable.  We made a quick stop in Marble Falls to pick up some presents for Morgan before driving the last two hours.  After visiting with her, picking up Cameron, making a quick stop for some sub sandwiches and heading out, we finally arrived home just before midnight.  Long day......

Blanco, Tx

Nancy and I were up for an outing today.  We planned to go to Wimberly but our first stop was going to be Blanco, Texas.  I have been through this town so many times on Hwy 281 but almost never stopped.  There is a state park here right off the highway too.  So we decided to check it out first.  This is entrance.  There are lots of picnic tables and nice areas on this side of the river for day visitors.  A road runs both ways along the river on the entrance side.

You have to cross the river using the low water crossing road in order to get to the camping area.  Once across you go up a small hill to the campground.

It's not a large campground, only about 25 or 30 spots.  There is one circle with full hookups including sewer.  The other circle has electric and water.  There are nice restrooms, a small playground, and lots of shade trees.  You can see several of the camping sites below.  It is a lovely place.  Swimming is in the Blanco River.  When you pass the park in the summer, you can see everyone having fun in the swimming area but you cannot see the campground.  There are plenty of places to walk and enjoy nature in this little jewel.

This shelter was built during the old CCC area and is really nice.  There is a nice fireplace in one end of it.  They also have screened shelters for rent with a concrete table in one end with lots of room to set up your own cots.

Another thing that is unique about this park is that you feel like you are out in the country but you can actually walk into town without much effort as it is only a couple of blocks to the town square.  Here you will find a couple of restaurants, antique shops, pottery, etc.  There is also a very friendly visitor's center just waiting to provide you with all kinds of info about the area.

As is common in many small Texas towns, the courthouse is at the center of it all.

Did I mention that Blanco is the Lavender capitol of Texas?  There are several lavender farms in the area and a big festival in the summer.  There are also wineries in the area.

Next we headed off to Wimberly--but that's another blog.  On the way, we stopped at this farmer's market.  While you can't see anything outside, there are things inside.  Since it is during the week, everything is "on the honor system".  You pick what you want and leave the money there.  As it is the end of October and nearly lunch time, fruits and vegetables are not in big supply.  But there were huge bouquets of beautiful fall flowers for really reasonable prices.  There were eggs and cheeses as well.  Very interesting.  Off in the distance behind the building we could see greenhouses and planted fields.

Stay tuned for a visit to Wimberly, TX.  And stop by and take a look at Blanco the next time you are in the area.  You won't regret it.