McKinney Falls State Park

Sorry for the absence of late - here's what I've been up to:

Some of you know we go camping often.  I made a New Year's Resolution to camp once a month this year, and I've loved everywhere we've been so far.  We went to Enchanted Rock State Park, Pedernales Falls State Park, Caprock Canyons State Park, Palo Duro Canyon State Park, and now, McKinney Falls State Park.

McKinney Falls State Park is located on the southeast side of Austin, TX, and is just a short drive out of the city.  It hides itself well - you would never know it was there.  And what a pretty little park it is!

A creek runs through the park, and a strange oddity -  I think it's called a waterfall :) pours over a few ledges in the creek bed, and makes a beautiful scene.  (I didn't take pics of the waterfalls, since there were so many people there). Quite a few people were enjoying the warm weather in the deep blue swimming. 

hole.  

Above the ledge the water is quite shallow (this is at the upper falls), so we let the boys walk around with us in the water, chasing minnows.  

This is what the water looks like up there - 

We even got to see this pretty bird - anyone know what he is?

Our youngest celebrated his 2nd birthday, and I'm still in shock as to how old he's gotten, right under our noses.  We camped for the weekend and had some family stop in Saturday afternoon to celebrate with us.  Here's Mr. C with 4 pieces of cake on his plate.  Can you tell Grandma is sitting next to him cutting the cake?  he actually ate it all too.

We enjoyed walking through the beautiful fields of wildflowers that the park had to offer -

Indian blankets -

Thistle -

Pretty white poppies -

Even the prickly pear cactus were in bloom!

We got our family portrait taken -

And set up camp for the night - the campsites there are all very generous.  We had plenty of room to ourselves and the other campers were quite courteous.  We had water and electricity at our site, and really, a great layout.  We had Chuck-Wills-Widows calling around us all evening, and I actually got to see one fly over our tent. :)  I always wanted to see one.

Mr. Tupelo may have caught me reading. :)

My take on McKinney Falls state park?  I really liked our campsite, and all the others we saw.  We had plenty of parking at our site, and lots of space to spread out.  The scenery was nice, and all the flowers were blooming.  We couldn't have asked for more enjoyable weather.  My only problem with it?  It still sounded like the city - you can hear the highway noise and the airport, both of which are nearby.  However, if you are looking to visit Austin, and you want/need to camp while you are there, I can see you'd choose McKinney Falls.  It's convenient to shopping, dining, and all the best things in Austin. Would I go back?  Well, it was perfect for what we needed it for - a meeting spot for a party - which made it convenient and easy to get food/cake there.  But if I was just looking for relaxation at a campsite near Austin, without all the noise, I'd pick Pedernales Falls State Park.  So far, it's my go to camping place.

I'll be around with my KCWC projects soon - it's been hard to get back in the groove since our camping trip!