Guadalupe River State Park

We only spent a weekend here, but we sure did have a blast.

Nice little park that is further away from Round Rock then I planned.
I took IH35 down to New Braunsfels and over to the park. For my return, we went via 281 to 290 to 620. The return was the better route to take. The road from New Braunsfels to the park took forever.

The camping section is a nice walk down to the river. A little far for carrying a cooler and tubes. However, there is plenty of parking down by the water with a huge overflow parking lot just up the hill. The RV loop had nice size camp sites with long flat paved pads. Plenty of shade and brush to keep each site closed off from each other which made each site pretty secluded. Picnic table and fire rings were part of the site. In addition, each site had a good size slightly elevated tent pad. All tents have to be pitched in the tent pad area. Which could cause a problem for multiple tent campers. Rest rooms, hot showers and the dumpster were close by.

The Guadalupe river was a quick drive from the RV site and about 50 yards from the parking lot. There are several stairways down to the river from the parking lot. Lots of shade by the parking lot and several families were picnicing there. No shade down by the river. The water was cool, clear, easy flowing and not too deep.....perfect for my kids. We did have a couple of tubes, but we kept getting grounded (water level was low). There was a couple of minor rapids down at the bottom of the bend that kids loved body floating down.

Another pretty cool thing was a cliff on one side of the river had a bunch of little birds nesting in it. I initially thought they were bats, but they were just little humming bird looking creatures.

This was my first family camping trip without my better half (she went to a funeral). I attribute the fun factor this park offered in helping me keep my four kids busy (non-bored). The kids did the hike to and from the river, caught lots of minnows, found a fossil, couple of arrowheads and built/demolished a dirt castle in the tent pad area.

Pros
- nice size secluded camp sites
- large paved flat pads
- lots of shade in the camp site
- pretty river, not too deep, not to fast for kids
- lots of parking down by the river
- Honey Creek Natural Area

Cons
- tents had to be pitched in the tent pad
- good walk to the river from the camp site (tough walk carrying a cooler or tubes)
- too shallow to tube float

Rating

8 out of 10

Emma Long City Park - Austin, TX

EMMA LONG CITY PARK

Austin, Texas

May 15-17, 2009

Annual group campout on Lake Austin. We managed to get three beautiful water front RV spots for the RVs. We also had several tent campers.

We did have some rain on Saturday, but we made the best of it.

Breakfast each morning was performed in the "Kitchen Stadium".

This is still my most favorite park. Memories from weekends like this, coupled with the location and beauty, make it hard to beat.