danielfi99

Hi! First off I want to complement on your site, it is very useful(especially the campsite ratings and such).

Anyway,
Me and a couple of the guys wanted to get a good taste of the outdoors for 2-4 days during our spring break. We are going to be primitively camping--we live in houston therefor we want to experience the outdoors as it comes. We dont mind a drive but mainly we wanted a place where we can find solitude, also it would be important to me to find a place where tehre would be minimal light pollution; where i live I cant see half the stars. I havent had much time to look through all the places but I have seem a couple that interested me.

Hill Country Natural State Area
and
Inks Lake State Park
also
Cleburne State Park

I realize Inks Lake doesnt have very much solitude. I would honestly rather go to Hill Country but I just wanted to make sure that we would find stuff to do in it and that there is good places to hike and such(we dont want an easy set out path with no rock climbing or challenges). On the picture there doesnt seem to be very much difficult terrain. We went to the primitive site at Enchanted Rock a couple months back and we had a really good time climbing up the rocks and enjoying the views, but unfortunately we didnt find much solitude(boyscouts were everywhere).

Is there any other suggestions that you might have? Thanks.

-Daniel F.

Turn Key

Hi Daniel,

Would like to welcome you to Wild Texas. Hope you can find what you want here. Can usually find some one here that can answer most any question.

Not real familiar with Hill Country SNA so I can't be much help. I have been to Inks and will be returning in April. I like that park but can't really see it giving you what your looking for. There is a fair bit of hiking but, as you said, solitude would be at a premium particularly on the weekends. Park does "thin out" a good bit during the week.

I'm very familiar with Cleburne SP as we live only about 35 minutes from there and tend to call it our "home" park. Like Cleburne very much but there is limited opportunity for hiking. What there is is very nice but if that's what your looking for, I don't think you'd be happy very long. Also, except for the youth group camping area, there is no primitive camping at all in this park. A "day trip" to hike at Cleburne would probably fit well.

Might I suggest Pedernales Falls State Park near Johnson City, in the Hill Country. Have been there and I believe it may fit what your looking for. Park is set well back from any city lights. It also has a seperate "primitive" camping area that you have to hike into. Have hiked back there myself and I could see where you could find yourself completly alone back there. Hiking trails are pretty extensive and should keep you busy for a few days at least. Best of all, your in the Texas Hill Country! What else could you want :cool:! Here's a site reference if you want to take a look:

Pedernales Falls SP

You can access a facility map in PDF format from this site. Give you a good idea of what your looking at.

Hope this info is a help and you have a great trip! If you have any other questions, feel free to post and I'll see what I can do.

Again, welcome to Wild Texas and happy camping!

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ploddinTod

Check out Colorado Bend State Park. Only 12 miles of hiking trails but they do have a couple of primitive campsites. Cave and waterfalls tours are available. Also read Shannon's notebook on their trip. This is one of the lesser developed parks which keeps the crowds down.

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PloddinTod

newyork1

I was at hill country sna last year. it had rained a few days before we were there (hiked with my father from NY) so a couple of spots on the trail were muddy but well worth the trip. I don't know your skill levels, but there are over 40 miles of trails there. we did not stay over night but they have at least 2 camping areas there. we were there in april so it was not real hot yet. but remember the name say's it all it is a natural area so there is not much in the way of facilities available. portajohns at parking areas, but not sure about what they have at camping areas. we did about 12 miles of hiking while we were there. the trail we hiked had some pretty good ups and downs on it. wear good footwear as some spots are rocky and some spots had wetland to cross. trails are pretty well marked but do get a copy of the map from the rangers we needed it a couple of times to get back on the trail due to game paths in some areas. we thought it was worth the trip. have fun and take lots of water. you might also want to check out lost maples it was a very nice park to hike only draw back is you could hike it in one day (about 12 miles of trail) or spend two days hiking the two main loops very good sites to see there. flash flooding is a concern though as one of the loops takes you through a canyon with a stream. take plenty of film if you like taking pictures as both parks have good vistas.

copuswalker

Hill country state natural area is good. Have you thought about Big Bend or if you really want a challenge the Rancherias trail at big bend ranch state park.
Of course close to home but fairly level are the 4c trail in the Davey Crockett N.F. or the Lonestar?
Another great spot could be the climbing stairs area of Ark. 2-3 day hike with everything???
Glad to see you post and keep us all informed

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There are those that hike and those that don't and those that say they will but won't.

newyork1

daniel,
there are some good rock faces at hcsna that did not look as tough as turkey knob at enchanted rock. though most trails there are rolling terrain with some hills to climb. if you can bushwack your own trails you could make your hikes pretty rough. i would check with the rangers first to see if its permitted to hike and camp off trail. hope this helps and post us how your trip turns out.

lost_but_found

hcsna would be my first recommendation to you. it is a beautiful and large park with nice big hills and lots of area to roam. they have a great trail system out there and the times i have been, i had it basically to myself. another place you might look into is Pedernales Falls State Park because it has some good scenery and a good trail system. the developed sites can fill up and people frequent the falls for sight seeing, but the trails out to wolf mountain are typically empty, and the primitive sites are rarely taken either - at least everytime i have been there (at least 5 or 6 times).

or another place i have recently feel in love with is Lake Georgetown's Good Water Trail. they have some very accomodating primitive sites with picnic tables and fire rings. hcsna has this luxury as well. most primitive sites will not allow camp fires - so keep that in mind!

danielfi99

First off id like to thank everyone for replying to my question.

As of right now there are three place that we have narrowed down our search to go:

Colorado Bend State Park

Hill Country State Natural Area

and finally, the one that has captured my interest the most:

Big Bend National Reserve

After looking into Big Bend, it seems that the 650 mile drive there is worth it(coming from Houston). With 800,000 of park area there it seems to be that there is no going wrong. However, im not 100% sure if its worth the extra drive for I havent heard much about it--and Colorado Bend/Hill Country did look very entising as well. Please share any comments or suggestions you might have if you think Big Bend is really that special of a place that im guessing it is. Thanks once again.

-Daniel

Shannon

You won't get more primitive, more solitude, more expansive Texas landscape and scenic vistas, more "WOW, this is why I love the outdoors" experiences than in Big Bend National Park. If you're willing to make the drive, it will more than amply reward your patience and drive time. Plenty of folks here on WildTexas.com, including yours truly, have spent time in Big Bend. I haven't done backpacking out there, but we did camp in the Rio Grande Village Campground (in a rented pop-up tent trailer) in 2001. We intend to return for a tent camping/backpacking trip in the next year or two.

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01ACRViper

Big Bend NP is going to give you the most solitude and the best stargazing. during SB, it might be a little crowded in the Basin, Rio Grande Village, and other large developed camping areas. To get away there is very easy. if you have a 4wd vehicle with some ground clearance, the River Road would suit you very well. If you bring enough water for a couple of days, a bbq pit, food, chairs, stuff like that, it can be really fun without much effort. we did that 2 winters ago, took 4 days to drive along, and once we found a nice spot we stayed there for the day. if you don't want to go that route, there are quite a few campgrounds in the outlying areas. just make sure you bring enough water, like 5-6 gallons per person per day for cooking/drinking/cleaning/whatever you need it for. hope that helps

Turn Key

Thought about something today that had slipped my mind when I made my original comments about Cleburne SP. Just north of Site #44 off of the "full hook-up" loop there is a trail that leads into the brush This trail leads back to 5 "tent" sites that could be called "primitive". The trail and all 5 sites doesn't last more the 1/4 of a mile. The sites are in poor repair and badly overgrown. All have fire rings and some have picnic tables. Two of the picnic tables have been "re-positioned" into the lake, I assume by those of a slightly less IQ level then most. The area has not been used much of late, if at all and needs repair.

Just thought I'd mention it. Happy Camping!

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