Many regions of the U.S. have made claims to having a lot of clean, clear water, but I'll bet 90 percent of those places don't meet my criteria for good recreational water: Can you get in it for more than five seconds and swim in it without being washed out to sea? I ask these questions of those who crow about "the country of 11,000 springs," for instance. I've seen that piddly, ice cold, shallow, fast-moving water, and I say "Ha." When I think of the rivers I know and love in Central Texas, my chest swells with happiness. Texas rivers are some of the finest things on earth and when I die I want to come back as a sun perch in a smooth limestone swimming hole with a big rock in the middle, someplace along the Pedernales or the Frio. Most of my finest water experiences have been in Texas state parks.
The water is clear, you can get in it, it's warm enough to bear, and cold enough to thrill. There are deep places for real swimming, and shallow places for the endless varieties of water play that have given me pleasure since my childhood. Go swim in this water; it's a balm for the troubled and a pleasure for the content.
Pedernales Falls Hwy 290 and 3232, Johnson City, 78636
210/868-7304
When I was a kid in the late Sixties and early Seventies, you could go to the "Falls" part of this Texas state park and have yourself an amusement park-style blast sliding down the slimy rock into what amounts to God's own swimming pool. My 7th grade class went there, and certain elements of the class competed for the title of "boy most likely to crush skull." Thank you so much, stupid boys. Now we can't even swim there any more, much less slide down rocks.
They closed the falls area for swimming, which forced me to explore the rest of the park, and this place is a wonderland of bone white limestone, clear spring water, and tough, fascinating plants and animals. I could illustrate a map: here I found a picture-perfect waterfall, here I picked and ate dewberries to my heart's content, here is a field I walked through full of chest-high plants with yellow flowers and almost as many butterflies, here I saw a snake wind to the end of the branch of a cypress tree then fall (can a snake jump?) two feet into another tree and continue pulling itself through the branches.
If you are willing to walk the river path for a while, you can locate some of the best swimming spots in the United States. The fine, blue-green spring water is alluring in all of its forms, running over rocks, collecting in swimmable pools, spreading out over rock flats. The minutiae of rocks, sand, plants, and water can keep you living happily in the moment all day. On our last visit, I helped my two-year-old son collect the shells of tiny river mussels and put them in a hole in the sand. This kind of activity can be very good for you. I recommend you check out the variety of interesting seed pods.
Palmetto State Park
183 N. on Park Road
210/672-3266
This is not my favorite recreational park, certainly not for swimming; nevertheless, it must be seen. It's located in the Ottine Swamp, and is utterly different from any landscape in this region, with an other-worldly, dinosaur-era feel, mostly due to the park's namesake, the Dwarf Palmetto, which is abundant in the undergrowth. It is also a fabulous area for bird watching; 240 species have been recorded on the parklands. I myself can credit Palmetto State Park with providing me one of my most exciting bird sightings: a pileated woodpecker, the largest surviving North American woodpecker. Such an impressive bird, mostly black, with a red-and-white face, and a powerful "peck" which resounded through the forest of high trees and low underbrush with a full, round "tock, tock." My heart stirred for a bird, to misquote Gerard Manley Hopkins. Bring your mosquito repellant.
Note: Palmetto is one of several parks, including Bastrop, Buescher, and Garner, where you can find structures erected by the Civilian Conservation Corps. These marvels of stone and wood solidity, built in the mid-1930s, are an underrated Texas treasure, gratifying just to look at and beautifully designed.
Lost Maples Hwy 187, 5 miles N. of Vanderpool
210/966-3413
Perhaps my second-favorite park, following Pedernales. The much-touted maples are great, but I am attracted by the typical Hill-Country features: two hiking trails and the clear, navy blue swimming hole where you can float under a stone cliff in bracing spring water. There are several hikes you can undertake -- ranging from a couple of miles to around 10 miles -- that wind through shadowed rock canyons, following a stream, and then climb steep slopes to higher grasslands, where Texas Mountain Laurel, both the purple and the rarer white variety, scents the air in the spring. Off-season, that is, when the maples are not in fall color, the park is not crowded, and the remote trails give you the sense of being far away, in real untrammeled Hill Country. Lost Maples is one of several parks that is home to the golden-cheeked warbler, but I must say that the little fellows seem to come out of the bushes and put on a show here.
Enchanted Rock Ranch Road 965, 17 miles N. of Fredricksburg
915/247-3903
It's a big, round rock, and people are compelled to climb it. Who wouldn't be attracted to this giant batholith? Getting on top of this mound of igneous material is a doable but challenging task for the fit and semi-fit, and if you're not fit at all, you can still do it and the view at the top is rewarding. The byword here is "sun," though, so take your sunscreen and your hat, and plenty of water for the trail. The country around Enchanted Rock is softer and greener than Hill Country; it's based on different rock, granite instead of limestone, and it shows in the plants and the lay of the land. Two more notes: 1) There are several intriguing canyons to explore, which I firmly intend to do someday. 2) Call before you go. Park officials only let a certain number of people in the park at a time, so you could drive all the way up there and then be faced with a bum tripper.
Take the drive from Austin to Llano on Hwy 71, and watch the land change from dry, hard-scrabble Hill Country to this more mellow landscape. It's fabulously beautiful in the spring; the two-lane road cutting through rich, colorful swaths of flowers. See bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush accented by bits of granite (rather than limestone) for a subtle change in that quintessential Texas scene. It's one of the prettiest stretches of road in Texas, for my money.
McKinney Falls
5808 McKinney Falls Pkwy. Austin
512/243-1643
While I don't find it to be particularly visually stunning, McKinney Falls has subtle features to recommend it. The park terrain encompasses several types of land, including grasslands and Hill Country, and consequently has a rich variety of flora, fauna, and avifauna (birds). I have been on many a satisfactory bird-watching venture at this park. There's also the thrilling possibility of seeing a half-brown, half-black rock squirrel. For some reason, this really excites me. Add in the fact that the park is very close to Austin and has a first-rate bike trail, and you have a lovely place to go when you don't feel like planning a major outing.
When I first moved to Austin in 1979, I went swimming at McKinney Falls. Shortly thereafter, it was closed for swimming due to pollution. Recently, swimming has been allowed again, so I went last year, and I must say that unless there's been a lot of rain, I wouldn't recommend it.
Bastrop State Park Loop 150 & Hwy71
512/321-2101
As a young thing, I was one of those people who wanted to move away from Texas to some place, any place. I imbued the Texas landscape with characteristics of what I perceived of as Texas culture, and thought the land sort of crass and homely. The Lost Pines were like someone in your town who had gone east, gotten culture, and come home, and I would go out there just to get a whiff of another place.
I never did go away, and every year I found the sere beauty of my native land more compelling. Now I'm quite the fan, or an apologist, as some might claim. So Bastrop State Park does not have the romantic hold over me it once did. Still, I love the place, and it now feels like Texas to me.
The smell of pine trees is refreshing even when it's 100 degrees. The paths of the park are covered with pine needles and make a satisfying dull thumping sound as you walk. I would recommend the trails for joggers: cut down on those shin splints. There's a small lake where swimming is forbidden, but a couple of swimming pools are open in the summer. Bird watching can be great, though I've found that trying to see five-inch migrating warblers in the high canopy of loblolly pines can be most frustrating, unless you are adept at identifying birds by their butts.
The outstanding features of this park are the chunky cabins built by the CCC in 1938. These things would survive an overhead nuclear blast; survivalists take note. Being in one of these smoky cotts can give you that pioneer feeling without the annoying physical strain and danger. Highly recommended weekend getaway -- also highly popular, so call early.
Buescher State Park FM153 off Hwy71
512/237-2241
Buescher is connected to Bastrop State Park by a 7.5-mile scenic road, a really lovely bike ride. The landscape is quite different from nearby Bastrop, with some of the pines of its sister park, but a great deal more of the oak and brushy growth typical of this part of Texas. It's a picnic park, with grills and tables situated beside a pretty, man-made lake. You can swim there, if you are able to brave a (shudder) mushy bottom. I say, take your bike to Bastrop State Park, ride to Buescher, unpack your sammies and drinks, have a little picnic, then ride back. Very nice. n Julia Austin is a fifth-generation Texan, bird enthusiast, and musician in Austin band The Horsies.