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Balmorhea State Park—home of the spectacular San Solomon Springs swimming pool—is adding parking options to accommodate heavy traffic on summer weekends that leads to backups on Texas 17. 

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a news release that visitors are now allowed to enter the site and park their cars before paying for entry at the park headquarters.

Also, the park is partnering with Reeves County to create a new parking area on county property next door to the park. A park employee said the new parking area is not open yet. Visitation at Balmorhea State Park has grown nearly 80 percent over the past five years, according to the department.

Over last weekend, the park hosted more than 2,000 people on Saturday and close to 1,800 on Sunday.

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