texas hill country

[garmp]

Thinking about texas hill country for a late April early May trip.
Where is the Texas Hill Country? Apparently there is no set geographical boundaries. Some say near Austin, others say near San Antonio. OK, I'm lost.
We'd like to spend a couple of weeks in the area looking for waterfalls, springs, history and in general interesting sights and good food. COE & State parks are our preference. Military can work if needed.
So where to, to see what?


Thanks

[ppine]

roughly the Edwards Plateau. Dissected limestone. Great music, Great food. HOt and humid with almost no public land except for the water. March would be good, April not bad. By May it is too bleepin hot.

[1320Fastback]

TxTwoSome wrote:
On The River Walk In San Antonio. I Would Recommend Mad Dog Pub. If You Like Fish & Chips, And Also One Of The Best Steaks I Have Had.

We ate at Mad Dog when we were there a few weeks ago. Had the Cottage "Shepherds" Pie and also the Bangers and Mash.

Both were excellent!

[ppine]

My brother lived around Austin for 20 years. I used to visit a lot and married a girl from UT. By May it is already too hot and humid. Go earlier. Now (March) would be really nice and all in bloom.

[TxTwoSome]

I Would Also Recommend Lady Bird Park In Fredricksburg.

The Old Tunnel State Park Not Far From There Was Interesting, No Camping
There It Is An Old Railway Tunnel Now The Home For Millions Of Bats.
In The Evenings You Can Watch Them All Leave. Was Interesting And They Have Seats And A Ranger Is Also There Sharing Info.

On The River Walk In San Antonio. I Would Recommend Mad Dog Pub. If You Like Fish & Chips, And Also One Of The Best Steaks I Have Had.

San Antonio Zoo Is Also One Of The Better Zoo's In My Opinion.

The Museums Already Mentioned In Fredricksburg Are A Must If You Are Into History.

Also Enchanted Rock State Park. If You Are Into Hiking You can Climb To Top Of Large Granite Dome. Lots Of Indian History.

[timandsusan]

Lots of good suggestions on visiting the Texas Hill Country. I live in San Antonio and the bluebonnets and many other colorful wildflowers are in full bloom NOW. The area is getting dry, so some rain in the next few weeks would help the flowers last. Locally I have not seen any reports on the wild flowers around Fredericksburg and further west of San Antonio. Hope you can make the trip and enjoy that part of Texas.

[ken56]

I highly recommend going on line and ordering the Texas tourism guide. Full of good info and region specific maps that we found quite helpful.

[1320Fastback]

Spent a few days at a friend's property in Pipe Creek last week and she said it's considered hill country. We were 37 miles west of San Antonio and it was beautiful!

[CFerguson]

Go to Fredericksburg and ask around whats worth seeing.

And definitely hit the mom and pop Mexican restaurants/bakeries/etc. Best part of TX and I'm not a foodie at all.

[Bob806]

garmp wrote:
Recently got concerned about Garner State Park after reading about their check-in procedure/polocy and the various horror stories there of. Seems it can take hours to get a site and then the site is assigned to you.
We're use to looking over the campground and finding a site of our liking then registering. Don't know if this would be an issue or not, so I guess the best thing to do is to call and see what they say. Anyone have any experience camping there? We do not have reservations, as we hate to be tied down to a specific place at a specific time AND picking a site blindly.
We sort of plan to be at Garner SP middle of the third week of April for two nights.

The Texas SP system has recently gone to a site-specific reservation system. So if you know what site(s) you want, reserve it. In April, it shouldn't be a problem.

[garmp]

Recently got concerned about Garner State Park after reading about their check-in procedure/polocy and the various horror stories there of. Seems it can take hours to get a site and then the site is assigned to you.
We're use to looking over the campground and finding a site of our liking then registering. Don't know if this would be an issue or not, so I guess the best thing to do is to call and see what they say. Anyone have any experience camping there? We do not have reservations, as we hate to be tied down to a specific place at a specific time AND picking a site blindly.
We sort of plan to be at Garner SP middle of the third week of April for two nights.

[mr__ed]

I really enjoyed the hill country. Plenty of hills, of course, and lots of water. It didn't remind me of Texas at all. More like western NC or eastern TN. There's a small town in hill country that has a strong German influence (I think it's Fredericksburg). Good German food there and a business on the main street that specializes in all types of salsas. The public is invited to sample any salsa they sell. Amazing variety. Admittedly, I was a bit greedy and spent an inordinate amount of time sampling. LOL

[fanrgs]

Heisenberg wrote:
Garner State Park hands down.

We also like Garner SP. But in the southern Hill Country, we prefer South Llano River SP near Junction and Kerrville-Schreiner Park (former SP) in Kerrville. K-S Park has FHU sites, as well as W/E sites with 30-50A power. SLRSP has W/E sites, huge trees, river fishing, and a terrific bird blind. Garner has canoeing and kayaking, as well fishing and hiking. All of them are great campgrounds and, using I-10 with your tv or toad, close enough to visit both San Antonio and Fredricksburg on separate day trips.

We also prefer State parks and COE campgrounds to RV parks. So when we spent a month in Texas one winter, we invested in an annual Texas state park pass to save on the day-pass fees. We stayed in 10 different SPs for a total of 24 nights, so more than paid for it in fee savings.

[TxGearhead]

Do the San Antonio Riverwalk, the Missions, especially The Alamo, The Marketplace. Try the Mexican food on The Riverwalk, ask your server about entrees with fewer peppers, or just hold the peppers.

[texasjayco]

garmp wrote:
Thanks for the great suggestions/opinions.
How's the crowds that time of year? Are reservations recommended? We're not big on reservations cause we're not really sure when we'll be where, unless we got to. Have to look into more COE parks and possibly a side trip to the River Walk for the DW!
By the way, the fossil info sent the DW over the top. Now the Hill Country is a must!
Next we need eateries, but not big on Tex-Mex. Peppers & us don't agree.
Thanks all.

Most def want to make reservations that time of year!! Especially at the State Parks. But even the COE parks can get busy.

Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls
Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood
Andice General Store for burgers


Mark