Garner State Park

Located in the Texas Hill Country is the beautiful Garner State Park. With scenic views and hilly terrain, this park is a must see. The clear Frio River winds through the park and is gorgeous to swim and tube on.

I went to Garner State with my family and we decided to rent a cabin in the park. The park offers cabins with a fireplace and without. It also has group lodging available as well as camping. We booked a cabin without a fireplace.

We got to the park after 11:30 pm. I had called them for late arrival. I was told there would be instructions left for us in a box upon arrival to enter the park after hours. However, when we got to the park, there were no instructions or a number for us to call. We could not get through the gates to our cabin. So the first night, we ended up staying in our car. It was almost a 6 hour drive to Garner from Houston, and we were tired. Everyone was a little bummed out at not being able to enter the park, but there was nothing we could do at that point. So we had a nice little bbq by the visitor center, and took turns sleeping in the car. The visitor center opened at 8 am and I went in to speak to them about what had happened. The staff was very apologetic and kind, and to make up to us for having to stay in the car overnight, they refunded the money for the cabin rental as well as they did not charge us an entrance fee. Noone was bummed anymore J We got a free weekend at Garner.

After leaving the visitor center, we drove straight to our cabin. It was really nice and clean. All the cabins are spread out so there is some privacy. The outside area of the cabins is also pretty big. After freshening up, we drove through the park for some time while stopping at various scenic points along the way.

After having lunch at the cabin, we went to River Frio for water fun! The river is really beautiful and very clear. The park offers Kayak, paddle boat and tube rentals.

Come evening, we retired back to the cabin. The cabin had two double beds and there were seven of us. Five were able to sleep in the bedroom, and two outside. We had taken our own bedding. We were all quite comfortable and got a good night’s rest especially since we hadn’t slept very well the night before.

Day two started with us well rested, and a healthy heavy breakfast! Although check out time is 11 am, we packed up after breakfast and left the cabin. We parked by the Pecan Grove Camping area and hiked up to Old Baldy Summit. It’s a 0.53 mile hike up to the summit. It is steep and there is loose gravel along the way. But it is not a very difficult hike. Just need to be careful!

Old Baldy is the only hike we did. Once done, we headed back home.

All in all, Garner State Park is a great place for a weekend trip. You can do many different activities or you can just relax. Something for everyone!