Please help us better understand your interests by completing our six-question survey.
June 20, 2019 | By Anna-Kay Reeves
Hill Country summer favorite Hamilton Pool has been reservations-only since 2016 due to the swimming hole’s popularity. But if you’re still looking for a scenic place to cool your heels, there’s a more secluded spot five minutes away.
May 23, 2019 | By
Garner State Park, Lost Maples State Natural Area, and the surrounding Hill Country take you away from it all in the May edition of “A Piece of Texas” video series.
May 20, 2019 | By Pam LeBlanc
I can distinctly remember telling a friend a decade ago that I’d never compete in the Texas Water Safari, a grueling 260-mile paddling race from San Marcos to the coastal Texas town of Seadrift.
“Sounds horrible,” I said. Snakes, rapids, mud, spiders, heat, and sitting on a hard plastic canoe seat for two or three days? No thanks.
May 8, 2019 | By
With hotter temperatures coming, the aptly named Frio River attracts tubers, including these local students toting inner tubes at Garner State Park near Concan. The popular park, which reaches capacity daily between Memorial Day and Labor Day, is one of several put-in sites along the clear, spring-fed waterway. Andy’s on River Road, Josh’s Frio River Outfitters, Happy Hollow Store, and other outfitters rent tubes and offer shuttles to and from additional access points. Or stay on the water at Neal’s Lodges, Frio Country Resort, or Seven Bluff Cabins. No matter where you decide to drop in, the Frio promises ice-cold waters and a fun way to laze away the summer.
April 19, 2019 | By Fred Mays
Planning a wilderness escape to the Piney Woods? Consider double-checking the availability of your preferred camping areas and hiking trails—particularly in East Texas’ national forests, which are closing some campsites and trails to ease the financial strain.
March 26, 2019 | By Brantley Hargrove
March 1, 2019 | By Melissa Gaskill
With 18 miles of hiking trails—
13 of them open to mountain bikes and horses, along with plenty of flora and fauna along the Colorado River—
McKinney Roughs Nature Park lives up to the “nature” in its name. Adding the word “adventure” seems more appropriate though, given the current offerings of zip lining, universal terrain vehicle tours, survival skill classes, and more. All of the above makes this Lower Colorado River Authority property an excellent destination for a family spring break adventure.
February 14, 2019 | By E. Dan Klepper
The popular Llano River is a state-owned, navigable waterway over 100 miles long, but much of its riverfront property remains in private hands, creating accessibility challenges for anglers and paddlers who want to tackle its meandering course. Texas Parks and Wildlife has made getting onto the river a little easier by introducing four new public access points, with a fifth on the way, all available for fishing, floating, canoeing and kayaking.
October 29, 2018 | By Wes Ferguson
“Islands will always be places we project onto,” writes Judith Schalansky, the German author and designer of Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands. Their inaccessibility is part of their allure, the crossing over water a literal rite of passage—the more remote, the more deserted, the better. And Texans have options: From my experience, you can pitch a tent on the mud, sand, and weeds of islands in East Texas rivers; string up a hammock between bald cypress trees on a crescent-shaped gravel bar on a Hill Country stream; and lug your gear across the wooden footbridge at Martin Creek Lake State Park near Tatum to spend a night among the pines on an island ringed by a short hiking trail.
October 4, 2018 | By Jane Kellogg Murray
I was lured to Kimble County by my fly fisher husband—his heart set on hooking the fabled Guadalupe bass and learning a trick or two at the annual Oktoberfisch fly-fishing festival. For three days every October, the Fredericksburg Fly Fishers invite first-timers and avid anglers to their event along the Llano River in Junction. The town—known as The Land of Living Waters, a nod to the county’s abundance of flowing waterways—sits where the North and South Llano rivers meet, so it’s a prime locale for such a fest.
July 17, 2018 | By Emily Roberts Stone, Executive Editor
There’s something about a river that evokes feelings of nostalgia. Perhaps it’s the tie to something ancient—the current that ripples over our feet carries the same water that sustained native tribes and beckoned early settlers to its shore.
June 26, 2018 | By Pam LeBlanc
For nearly a week, an unspooling ribbon of greenish-blue will carry you down frothy rapids, alongside towering escarpments, and into deep, fish-filled pools. You’ll tangle with tall reeds that line the banks, drag boats through a section of bony limestone channels called The Flutes, and camp on rocky riverbanks.
Published 10 times per year by the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Highways, the official travel magazine of Texas, encourages travel to and within the Lone Star State and tells the Texas story to readers around the world.
