McKinney Falls State Park

Hurricane Ike was on its way and we were getting ready to hunker down, but then got to thinking, both my house and my motor-home where sitting here beside each other. I could move the motor-home but not the house. So we decided to pack up and hit the road. Headed for Bastrop State Park, since we had been there and liked it.

When we got there, we were told because of all the tall trees, it would be closed until after the storm passed. OK, where to now? They said to try McKinney Falls State Park just outside Austin. OK, we went on to Austin.

At McKinney Falls State Park, the park rangers were really nice and all sites were free for those running from the storm. It turned out that the park was beautiful, the weather was nice (considering what was happening at home), and we actually enjoyed are flight from the storm.

Let me give you a quick tour of the park. This first picture is of the pool below the falls:

Looking across the pool to the falls, you ask, where is the water? Well, it had been a dry spell and not much was going over the falls. This was good, because it revealed the beautifully carved stone.

And looking across the falls:

A closer look:

And from the other side:

This was our parking space. We decided to take a hike one evening and found a beautiful trail behind the parking spot.

Along the path there were interesting shaped trees.

Remnants of an old stone wall.

Of course, cactus:

As it was getting late, we headed back. The moon was coming up, which put a finishing touch to our walk along the trail:

Nice park, we plan to go back again some day when we don't have to worry about a hurricane. Want to join us?