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S. and I spent part of our weekend at beautiful Pedernales Falls State Park.
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The park is an easy half-hour drive out of Austin; on the way you pass through the sleepy towns of Dripping Springs and Johnson City. Johnson City is the birthplace of LBJ and was originally called something else. S. was trying to remember the town's original name, which prompted this exchange:
Me: Was it Willy-ville?
S: I think it was Schlongolia.
Me: No, it was Pecker Woods, remember?
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You reach the park via a county farm road that takes you through some beautiful hilly ranchland (and past such curiously-monikered sites as the "Hill Kuntry Kabins"). This road ends at the entrance to the park itself, after which there is another 5-6 mile drive to get to the camping areas. They have primitive and developed (with picnic tables and spigots) camping areas; we opted for a developed site just above the river. As you drive into the camping areas, you pass the "camp hosts", people who are paid to sit and drink beer and sell firewood, from what we could tell. We arrived at our site, pitched our tent under some juniper trees and headed down through the brush to the river. The Pedernales has some rough spots but in that particular area the water, while somewhat swift, was calm. We took off our shoes and waded out to the middle and splashed around. I played salmon and tried to swim upstream a little but my lack of physical fitness and the current prevented me from getting very far. The river bottom has a lot of big boulders and it was nice to just sit on those, partially submerged, and stare up at the beautiful sky.
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After our swim, we headed back to camp to have a snack and dry out and then drove three miles down to the falls. The trail down to the falls is an easy quarter-mile walk which ends at an overlook. The view from the overlook is absolutely stunning. You can see about a six-mile section of the falls from it and there is no way I can do the view justice. Huge slabs of limestone and slate, boulders, caves, water rushing and gliding...just breathtaking.
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We hiked down from the overlook and then up about a half-mile along the falls. The water was fairly low so our hike was mostly just bouldering, although in a few spots we had to do some climbing and sink-hole hopping. The rocks are embedded with all kinds of fossils, including some prehistoric oyster beds. Very cool. We hiked up to a spot near the upper falls and settled in to watch the sunset. Swimming is not allowed within 3 miles in either direction of the falls and it was easy to see why. Some of the pools were very deep and you could see eddys and undertows swirling under the surface. There are huge sections of the falls that are basically big rock water slides that look inviting until you realize that the slide ends in churning water and boulders.
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We got back to the campsite after dark and had a great dinner of roasted/grilled veggies, then drank a few beers and went to sleep. And by "sleep" I mean tossing and turning in a too-small, too-hot tent. The next morning we spent a good half-hour watching a cardinal attack himself in the rear-view mirrors of S.' truck; we finally covered the mirrors with paper towels because we were worried the poor thing was going to hurt himself. We lazed around the campsite until noon and then headed out.
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We drove back through Wimberley, a very pretty little artists' community half-way between San Marcos and Johnson City. Wimberley is starting to get popular as a vacation spot and you can see the small-town vibe slowly being replaced by a more urban veneer, which is too bad. The day after we passed through the town was holding a "kid's art fair", at which local children were going to be selling their arts and crafts. I thought that was a very cool idea - I would have gladly ponied up for some egg-carton flowers.
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Today I have to get my ass in gear for all of the company we're having this week. It's dark and rainy out and what I would really like to do is crawl back in bed.
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