Shannon

Share you comments or questions about Colorado Bend State Park, located in Bend, Texas.

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Megancita

I camped in this park for the first time this weekend.

Getting to the park involves a longish drive on a gravel road. There were plenty of drive-in campsites available along the river, facing the river bluffs. There were lots of anglers out this weekend fishing for striped bass, and boats and jetskiiers on the river, which made for some unwelcome noise on occassion. The park rents out kayaks for $20/day.

I took the guided Gorman Falls hike. The tour involves driving back up the long gravel road to a gated area and then hiking less than a mile to the falls. I was rather surprised by the falls -- I found them quite pretty and larger than expected. The ranger said there are over 300 caves in the area. A few can be seen by tour only and one is a self-guided "crawling" tour.

The best hike in the area was along the Spicewood trail. There were some nice changes in scenery and vegetation along the way and a few refreshing swimming holes along the creek. This trail can be combined with others to create 11 miles of hiking or so, though I did about six.

All in all, this was a very pretty park with an enjoyable hiking trail.

Here are the Falls:

munkee

I like this park. I have camped in the riverside primitive areas and directly in the drive in area. Both were nice. I didn't take any of the tours so I don't know about them. I did hike a few of the lower trails and swam in the creek. Nice and cool. Perfect on a warm summer day.

lost_but_found

A group of us went out on an overnighter along the Upper Gorman Creek primitive area earlier this year. The beginning of the trail has about 6 smaller waterfalls within the first 1-1.5miles! The water was jade green (from the limestone deposits I'm guessing) and very clear and chilly. The primitive camping area wasn't very pretty though, and some of the trails aren't marked and are rarely used - so they were fairly difficult to follow.

We started on the Spice Wood Springs Trail - so that would be where those waterfalls are located. They are worth seeing and photographing! I haven't done the either of the tours, but have heard they are decent for a guided tour.

hiwayman

I have never been to this park, but always wanted to go. Our group planned a car-camp trip to CBSP 2nd weekend in April. We also have reserved spots for one of the cave tours. I am thinking of taking bikes and kayaks just in case, but would really like to hike some.

Melanti

I defintely second the part about Spicewood Springs being one of the prettiest areas of the park, followed closely by the Gorman falls tour. All the small falls along the Spicewood Springs are beautiful.

Both the Gorman Falls tour and the walking cave tour are worth the time and the cost to go on them, though you have to reserve the cave tours in advance -- They fill up very quickly at some times of the year.

A word of warning about the riverside camping area though, its a short, flat easy hike from the parking lot, so it's a lot more crowded than most other primative areas, and last time I was there they had mown the lawn with tractors after a rain, leaving deep ruts covering the entire area that were rock hard after they dried. It was hard to find a comfortable spot to put the tent.

The one thing I disliked most about this park was the fact that the Gorman Falls/Caves area of the park is in between the two ends, meaning if you want to hike the Upper Gorman Creek Trail, where the windmills are, you either have to drive from one end to the other, or commit to a nearly 10 mile round trip hike just to get to the start of the trails on that end of the park. You also have to drive to the guided tours. Lots of driving involved in this park if you want to see all of it.

new_to_it

About that upper Gorman Creek camping --is there any water for swimming/cooling off closer to the Windmill camping area part of the trail?

I've done only limited walk-in/car camping before, but want to try a simple, more remote, actual backpacking trip for a couple of nights and thought I'd do it here. I figured the river campsites would get more foot/bicycle and water traffic nearby, so I was thinking about the Windmill area. (That would also make me actually hike further with my pack, so I'd know what I really think about this backpacking thing!) But my dog and I do want to be close to some kind of swimming and/or shade, since june is hot.

What did you find that was "not so pretty" about the campsites, too? When we're not hiking, I'll be just sitting back, reading, writing, etc. and do want a pleasant enough environment.

(Also, I'm going mid-week, so maybe crowds wont be an issue... )

Thanks -- glad I found this site!

scary as heck

Wow..just survived a scary trip here. has any one else had a scary experience here with peeping toms and stalkers etc... I would like to see if anyone else had any thing creepy happen or even just the bad vibes from anyone. Thanks, and by the way the park was pretty just the experience was scary as heck.

Unregistered

We are thinking of going to this park --- What kind of stuff scary happened to you??? What was the swimming like --- Any good water holes???

I might actually like to take a shower --- Any bus stops or showers nearby??

boyntonhaus

Camped in the River Bend Primitive area over the weekend. Laid our packs down for about 10 minutes to explore and when we came back to get them we had a Rattlesnake curled up under one of them! The area was very nice. Only to couples walked past us during our stay. The river was great although it seemed like it was low. The Gorman Falls guided tour is well worth it. Very nice. I had been to this park twice before and never made the tour. Glad we did this time.

natedg200202

When I was living in the DFW Metro area I was hard pressed to find a natural area to propose to my girlfriend. She mentioned something about liking waterfalls, so I did the research and found out about the Gorman creek tour. I took her on a suprise trip and she did not know where we were going. As it turns out, we were running behind and I did not take into account the 15 or so mile dirt road to get to the park. It was very rough at the speeds I had to drive - she did not understand why I was in such a hurry!

The falls were ok. I know it depends on the rainfall. It was dry when we went with only a trickle. Would be much better with some rain.

The park itself is great. Not too busy, which is rare with some texas parks. The favoriate camping grounds are next to the river - just a short walk from the parking lot above. The hiking is very good with a great swimming hole nearby. very clear water!

She did say yes; I proposed in the evening next to the river as we had a picknick. The deer were very interested in us!

http://www.nathangriffin.com

copuswalker

Hmmmm, why were the dear interested :rolleyes:

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ploddinTod

Good call, Nathan. Nature and romance go well together. And obviously it got the deer's attention also.

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PloddinTod

David Thornton

I have been to the park many times. Its a great place to get away from the day to day living. im currently in Florida and cant wait for the day i return and go back to this park I love it there.

thorn

I have been there many time. I love it cant get any better than this..

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out on the trail hunting for gold and the sound of silence.