Oh man, Fifi, Greg and and I have been doing the grand tour of natural areas around Austin. Saturday was an awesome, adventure filled day that included McKinney Falls State Park, as well as Pedernales Falls State Park. Honestly, they had been to both of these places, and decided to make sure the order of travel was correct. What I mean by that is, we apparently had to do McKinney Falls first as the “fluffer,” then head west to Pedernales Falls.
We started at McKinney falls, which was an old volcano that spewed rock all over the place, leaving a moon-scape look with water carving crazy cool patterns in the rock. There were 2 falls, one that looked to be a smaller version of Hamilton Pools. Not glamorous, but a solid park for being 20 minutes outside of downtown. Camping there would be cool, as you’re very close to the city. Other than that, probably not one to have on the big road trip list like I had.
Once the fluffer was done with (keep in mind I really liked this park at first), we headed out to Pedernales SP, which is one of the Fifi’s and Greg’s favorite places. With Maya the dog in tow, we headed out to the main falls. It was awesome! Such a cool geologic feature with crystal blue water flowing over limestone, pooling in all sorts of cool little swimming holes. There were even tiny springs flowing into the main waters that were easy to identify. After climbing all over the main falls area, we went to a designated swimming area a little downstream. We ended up hiking the river for a few miles, and finding a plethora of flint chunks that appeared to be worked up by native Americans. No actual arrowheads, but lots of discarded attempts. We spent a few hours exploring, then headed back to Austin. Definitely recommend this one if you’re traveling in the central Texas area.
River Crossing 
After Peternauls, I was talked into staying an additional day in Austin. It wasn’t that hard honestly… On Sunday, we decided to hit up some state parks that they hadn’t been to. This included Enchanted Rocks SP, as well as Old Tunnel SP. Being a two hour drive west, we woke up super early to get there as soon as the park opened. On the drive in, you can see the huge pink granite mountain, which of course got us super excited to explore. When we pulled up at the gate, we were told that in order to enter the park, you have to reserve a time slot online. This was annoying, as we looked at the website before driving the 2 hours, and nothing stated we had to reserve a time. Oh well. We found some cell service, and booked the 2-4PM time slot, which just so happened to be the only one left.
So what are we going to do with 5 hours to kill? We decided to check out an additional state park, Old Tunnel. It was super small, like 16 acres, but had a huge colony of bats living in an old railroad tunnel. We ended up loving this tiny park, because it had tons of educational signage about the plants we had been seeing throughout all of our hikes. It was nice to be able to finally put a name to a face. Also, we finally identified a bird call that had been bugging the shit out of us. Canyon Wren. Cutest little fucker ever. 10/10 would snuggle.
After wasting as much time there as we could, we popped over to a town called Fredericksburg. I plugged in Yelp, which led us to the most adorable German bakery. Ok the whole town was German. I haven’t read the history on it, but basically a little Germany in Texas that is known for Peaches, wineries, and WWII stuff. The adorable German bakery would eventually be my downfall, but I’ll get to that later.
After stuffing my face with German sausage wrapped bagel things and delicious pastries, we ended up at Das Peach Haus, a winery on a peach orchard. We got a bottle of the peach wine, that, honestly, was probably a mistake. It was a capri sun. If you had taken an actual capri sun and left it out for two days, it would literally have more alcohol than the peach flavored cool-aid we drank. Regardless, we finished our peach juice, and headed to the next winery. This one was called Fat Ass Winery, and had a cute little tasting room right on the downtown German strip. A few drinks there, followed by some more town exploring, and it was time to visit Enchanted Rocks.
This state park was bad ass. You basically had free reign to traverse the granite mountain tops anyway you liked. There were some intense steep hills that really tested my old tennis shoes ability to grip the ground. I passed a woman who was crying. I passed a lot of people that probably should not have attempted that climb. Regardless, getting to the top, and rock hopping around that hunk of pink was amazing. Camping there a few days would be awesome. Can I just say that Texas parks really don’t care that much about accessibility? I feel like our FL parks make everything dumbed down so everyone can get a chance to experience it. I get that. And it’s awesome. But Texas basically says, “have fun getting up that super steep shit, PS we aren’t coming to get you when you get stuck.” I feel like they understand that some experiences can’t be made to where they are ADA accessible, and that’s ok.
So, after a successful day touring some cool new sites, we came home to have dinner, and for me to pack up for my departure. Last night, my stomach decided to tell me that I cannot eat bread anymore. I’ve been playing with the Keto diet, and been getting some amazing health benefits. My indulgence in German delicacies had come back to haunt me. It took me until noon to get out of bed and moving to the next state park, Colorado Bend. Even with intense stomach pain, I was able to get a hike in here. The camp sites are right on the Colorado River, and pictures do it no justice. Here’s hoping tomorrow is a better day. Going to try one more hike, then head South.
Camp site at Colorado Bend SP 
Falls at Colorado Bend SP