San Marcos

Out of all the surrounding areas of Austin that I have visited, the San Marcos/New Braunfels area is my favorite. I love the natural water that comes from the Edwards Aquifer and runs through the area rivers. Spring water is so refreshing, clean and clear. I LOVE the idea of swimming in water that flows willingly from beneath Mother Earth. In my opinion, the springs are the biggest part of the beauty of this area.

Here are some highlights of our last San Marcos River trip of the year. The water is much too icy to swim in unless the temps are in the triple digits and the temps have finally gone back down to the 90's.

Our first stop was the San Marcos Nature Center. There really wasn't much to it visually. I believed it serves more as an educational center than anything.



We were told there was a hiking trail down to the river but it was so hot that we decided to drive down instead.

We ended up getting sidetracked when we passed our favorite swimming spot at Rio Vista Park and decided to take a detour. Something about the sight of the rushing rapids were just too tempting to hubby, the kid and the dog.




After we wore the dog out swimming and let us all get our dose of the rapids, we headed to our original destination the John J. Stokes River City Park. We had never been to this particular park on the river and I was curious to check it out.

It had gotten late in the day and we didn't have too much time to explore it.




I always get ambivalent about the season change this time of year. Even though this has been - and still is - a really tough summer for Central Texas, I love the summer time. At then end of every summer since I have been living in Texas I find myself looking forward to the next Summer even before Autumn begins....