It's possibly the last cool weather weekend of the spring before the crushing heat of summer arrives in Central Texas. We want to go camping, and by "we", I mean 4 fairly high maintenance adults, 2 tenderfoot youngsters, and 1 small dog. We can't take Friday off to spend half a day driving, so what do we do? Amazingly, we found the perfect destination within 45 minutes of Austin and they still had spaces available on Tuesday afternoon. Reservations made in a snap online for Taylor Park!
Why do I say perfect? For $22 per night (a bit steep as camping goes, but I'm okay with that, especially split between 2 families), we enjoyed the following:
- electricity
- fresh water
- BBQ grill
- fire pit
- covered pavilion with large picnic wooden table
- adjacent shady hiking trails
- lakeside fishing within a 10 minute hike
- clean showers, sinks, and toilets within a 5 minute walk
- quiet but friendly neighbors
- paved pathways for kids on scooters & bikes
- playscape
- dog friendly
- open spaces for kite flying
- swimming beach at Fox Park & other adjacent parks entry covered for the 3 days of our stay
I have no idea how this place wasn't already booked solid. I can only surmise that since Granger Lake is fairly new as area lakes go (it was built only in 1980), it just isn't as well known as other nearby spots like Inks Lake and Bastrop State Park. Maybe the Army Corps of Engineers parks aren't as well promoted as our state & LCRA parks?
I highly recommend visiting this and any of the Granger Lake parks during the spring, as magnificent wildflower displays can be seen from several areas of the parks. The hike trail takes you through very shaded, forested paths and then suddenly, you round the bend to see a glorious field of 10 different kinds of flowers (including thick bluebonnets and blooming prickly pear cacti). The kids loved all of the wildlife they could see up close: pretty birds, butterflies, fish, snails, and so on. This is Central Texas!
Tips:
- Be sure to pack in firewood for your pit, as they don't sell it here. We picked some up at Harley's on 183 before we headed out of Austin.
- Pack a hose for the faucets. There are 2 at each site.
- Use a tarp or other ground cover under your tent. The grass is full of sharp sticker burrs.
- Bring a hammock! You'll have trees and the covered pavilion to use as hanging points.
- Use 45N and 130 tolls roads to avoid Friday rush hour traffic. We beat our friends by 20 minutes and they were ahead of us until they hit the traffic in Round Rock.
- Watch out for the poison ivy & oak on the trails.
- Ask the guard house to note on the map which shower houses have hot water; not all of them do.
- Swimming is not really feasible at Taylor Park unless you bring a boat. We drove about 7 minutes down the road to Wilson Fox Park for their swim beach (which is not dog friendly, so you'll have to figure out what to do with any pups in your party).
- Read reviews of Granger Lake http://www.yelp.com/biz/granger-lake-granger for more info about the cool hike experience (including two antique bridges).
- Leave only footprints, take only photos :-) read more