Despite the Texas heat, we completed our family’s longest camping trip to date. Nine nights. Eight full days. Two partial days. Four state parks. Over 1,100 miles traveled. Nearly 18 hours of “on-the-road” time.
NOTE: You can click on any image below to view it in a larger size. While the image sizes have been reduced, the number of images in this post might cause slower-than-usual page loading times. Apologies for any issues.
Since you’ll see many photos below with us smiling and having a great time (and we did have an outstanding trip), let’s start with some honest insight into our camping trips. When you put three humans and a cat in a tiny space — our camper is an Aliner Scout hard-sided popup that is roughly six feet by 11 feet inside — for any length of time, and especially for more than a week, some grumpiness seems inevitable. And we had a bit of that on this trip. Since we don’t usually take photos of such instances, I thought it worth disclosing this up front so that no one thinks any camping trip we take is a completely beautiful, blissful experience without any challenges or frustrations. If you go on a camping trip and encounter such emotions, know you’re not alone and it is very common. That being said, this was a wonderful trip filled with many (and mostly) positive experiences.
Our trip started at South Llano River State Park (SLRSP), which is located a few miles from Junction, Texas (and about 67 miles west of Fredericksburg). A park map is available here. A trails map is available here. This has been our most-frequented camping destination in recent years, and we spent two nights here at the start of this trip. We’ve enjoyed pretty much everything the park has to offer across our five visits: running and hiking trails; kayaking, tubing / floating, wading, and swimming in the South Llano River; sitting in the bird blinds; and camping in both the developed sites (water / electricity) and the primitive sites. Last summer, Peyton completed a half marathon race on the trails at night in mid-July, and she’ll be attempting to complete the full marathon this year. On this trip, Peyton and I both did a trail run on a combination of trails. Peyton ran a half marathon on the same course loop she’ll run twice later this summer, while Will and I did a roughly two-mile hike on trails near the river. We also floated down a short section of the river and then waded / swam in the river. A few photos from our stay are below, and you can read about our previous trips here, here, here, and here.
After our second night at SLRSP, we packed up our gear and drove 294 miles to Davis Mountains State Park (DMSP), which is located about three miles from Fort Davis, Texas, and about 140 miles northwest of Big Bend National Park. A park map is available here. A trails map is available here. This was our first visit to DMSP, and our longest stay of the trip. Originally, we planned to stay four nights, but we extended our reservation by one night to give us flexibility on when we decided to leave for our third park of the trip. This worked out well, since it rained off and on much of the day on our original departure date, so we stayed one more night and departed once the rains cleared out of the area. On the rainy day, we drove into Alpine, Texas, (about 27 miles southeast of DMSP) to visit the Museum of the Big Bend, eat lunch (we chose Magoo’s, which was very tasty), and explore the town. At DMSP, Peyton and I both did a trail run / hike on a set of trails that lead to a vista at the highest point of the park (5,700 feet in elevation). As a family, we hiked the Headquarters Trail, as well as a five-mile loop (combining the CCC Trail and Skyline Trail). With the exception of the Headquarters Trail, all of the trails involve a decent bit of climbing and they have a few steep sections, but the views of the surrounding area makes it worth the effort. One of the keys to camping in Texas in the summer is to be active early and late in the day, while finding ways to relax and stay cool during the heat of the day. With temperatures in the mid-to-upper 90s most days (until the rains came toward the end of our stay), we did our hikes / runs early and late, with the middle of the days occupied by sitting in the shade at our campsite (using a misting fan to keep cool), driving into town for groceries / ice, visiting local attractions, and resting / reading in our camper with our AC and fans running to help us cool down. The McDonald Observatory is only 10 miles northwest of the state park, so we reserved a guided tour one afternoon. It was a wonderful experience, with an excellent guide: a student at the University of Texas who is interning at the observatory during the summer. I’d certainly recommend stopping by the observatory for a guided tour if you’re in the area — and if you’re a “night owl” (which we are not), consider reserving a spot for one of the “star parties” that begin at 9:45 p.m. and last until around midnight. The Indian Lodge at DMSP is closed for renovations, but the park staff hope it will be open by the end of the year, and we’d like to make a trip back to stay at the lodge. Photos from our time at DMSP (and the surrounding area) can be found below.
Five nights after arriving, we departed DMSP for Balmorhea State Park (BSP), located a few miles outside of Balmorhea, Texas, and about 35 minutes from DMSP. A park map is available here. We planned a two-night stay here initially, but due to rain, we only camped one night at the park. The primary attraction of BSP is the huge swimming pool fed by the San Solomon Springs. There isn’t much to the park other than the spring-fed pool, but the developed camping area looks to be recently updated and is well maintained. Also, the pool is impressive in many ways: size (1.3 acres), clarity (see underwater photos below), output volume (15 million gallons daily), and temperature (72-76 degrees year-round). Since we stayed one less night than planned at BSP, we made up for it by getting a day pass while we were camping at DMSP. We drove over to BSP to swim for a few hours, enjoying the coolness of the spring-fed waters on a day with highs in the mid-90s. It is worth visiting BSP if you’re in the area, especially in the summer when the cool water is a welcome relief from the Texas heat. And if you want a great meal while you’re in town, stop by La Cueva De Oso Restaurant (you won’t be disappointed). Below, you can view a few photos from our day trip and overnight stay.
After one night at BSP, we hitched our camper up once again and drove 320 miles to Lost Maples State Natural Area (LMSNA), located about 65 miles south of Junction, Texas, (where SLRSP is located) and about 28 miles northeast of Garner State Park. This was our fourth trip to LMSNA. On the first two trips, we hiked into the primitive areas of the park and spent several nights tent-camping. On our third trip, we stayed at the developed camping area in our Aliner over New Years. We spent one night at LMSNA on this trip, again at the developed camping area. Peyton and I both did trail runs that combined several trails. We hiked as a family to “Monkey Rock,” and William and I hiked to the day-use area to bring water to Peyton during her nearly 11-mile trail run. This is a beautiful part of the state with many state parks / natural areas you can visit, including: Lost Maples SNA, Garner SP, Hill Country SNA, and Government Canyon SNA. Photos from our latest visit to LMSNA can be found below, and you can read about previous visits here, here, and here.
This trip necessitated a lot of time on the road, as well as four times setting up camp and then breaking everything back down — none of which is a particularly desirable part of camping, especially since it was in the 90s when we arrived at most of the parks. Even so, the trip was a blast, with lots of fun and memorable experiences. We might consider heading somewhere with cooler weather next summer, as the heat often sapped our energy (even with the opportunity to go into our camper and cool down in the AC when needed). But it will be hard to beat the memories we made on this trip.
Dawes Outdoors 