Description: Pedernales Falls is my favorite park in the Austin area to spend a day hiking through the
smooth river-shaped limestone rocks or to simply have a picnic lunch on the small sandy stream bed beach. I've never actually camped at this park since the demand for a site is pretty high, forcing you to plan far in advance and book really early...but I have made many day trips out to the park.
One of the reasons I enjoy Pedernales Falls so much (and probably it's general popularity) is because it's just so different than any other parks in Austin or the surrounding Hill Country area. It's really unique and distinct combination of many sized water pools, layers of eroded limestone, and sandy patches with the flowing water in-between is it's main attraction. The park is actually quite large, covering over 5000 acres, but most of the visitors flock to the falls area. The natural beauty of the water flowing over the smooth limestone rocks is just really incredible and way more exciting to look at than just your average river.
After entering the park and paying the $4 entrance fee, the rangers will direct you to a parking area near the falls. From here you'll take a short walk on a path through the canopy of the forest to where it opens up to an overlook of the falls. A great place for photos because you have an airel side-view of the stretch of the falls. The Pedernales River gradually drops about 50 feet in elevation from a distance of about 3000 feet, so the falls are quite long with a very gentle slope. It's made up of many layers of limestone rocks that have been worn and smoothed by the flowing water over many, many years and have resulted in water pools, cascades and sand patches. You can hike down to the falls from the overlook and walk over and through the exposed rocks and around the water pools. All of the different exposed layers of rock make it fun to jump around from place to place. I enjoy visiting in the spring and fall because you can really feel the sun beating and it's nice and warm, but not too hot.
To get to Pedernales Falls State Park from Austin, drive west on US Highway 290 for about 32 miles then turn north FM 3232 and continue for about 6 more miles. The drive will take you through parts of the scenic Hill Country and a few small Texas towns. There are many local nearby wineries along the way to visit and it's really fun to incorporate a trip to the quaint German town of Fredericksburg by continuing west on 290. If you hit it during the right seasons you can easily buy a basket of freshly grown peaches or a bag of pecans at any of the many small roadstands set-up along the way.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/pedernal/pedernal.htm
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