Hiking Guadalupe River State Park

The holidays are all about spending time together for my family, and this year that involved getting outdoors. It could be a hard sell for many, but my family and Winter were all in for a quick trip to do some hiking! We went for a half day on Christmas Eve and hiked Guadalupe River State Park. Guadalupe River State Park is located in the Texas Hill Country near the town of Spring Branch, TX.

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Hiking Along the River

When we got to the park we headed down to the river to park the car and hike the 0.6 mile Bald Cypress Trail. The trail follows the river and offers spectacular views of the cliff faces on the opposite side of the river bank. On our side of the river there were enormous Cypress trees along the water edge.

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Hiking Through the Hills

Our next adventure in the park was a combination of a few different trails. We hiked a portion of Barred Owl Trail and Cedar Sage River Trail to make our way to the 0.77 mile River Overlook Trail. This trail is very appropriately named, with amazing overlooks of the river and meadows. We stopped every 40 feet to try and find the best view we could. There was also a few wildlife sightings along the trails. We saw an armadillo wondering across the park road and a huge white tail buck and doe.

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River Overlook Trail connects to the 2.86 mile Painted Bunting Trail, the parks longest trail. The weather took a turn for the worse while we were there so we cut the hike a little short. We used the park road to catch the eastern side of Painted Bunting Trail and caught the 0.82 mile Live Oak Trail and the Discovery Center Loop Trail back toward the river and car.

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Before You Go

The TPWD site has a lot of information available about Guadalupe River State Park. This is always my recommended place to start researching State Parks. Here are few quick tid-bits about Guadalupe River State Park:

• The park entrance fee is $7.00 per adult year round
• All the trails are dog friendly (on-leash), and most of the trails are multi-use (horses and hiking).
• This park has two units, the less trafficked one is the Bauer Unit on the north side of the river, with plenty of trails to explore.
• On weekends you can get a guided tour of Honey Creek State Natural Area, which is adjacent to the park.
• During the summer you can spend the day swimming in the river.

The park is about 4 hours from Houston, north of San Antonio. When we made the trip in December, the weather was somewhat gloomy and not the best for swimming, but the river was beautiful and the hiking was great. For this park I highly recommend supportive hiking shoes, as the trails are rocky and it would be easy to twist an ankle.

If you are hiking with your four legged best friend, be sure they are prepared for the distance you plan to hike, the weather, and bugs! For this park as well, make sure to check their paw pads regular in case of thorns or sharp rocks. Check out some of my other posts about hiking with dogs for more details on this!

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Leave No Trace

This holds true, especially when hiking with dogs, who are lucky enough to have nature as their never ending restroom! I always carry plenty of baggies to clean up after them, and carry it out since there were not any trash cans along the trail. I have a bag to put all my trash in that I carry in my small day hiking pack. Using a refillable and reusable water bottle instead of using a plastic bottle from the convenience store is a must.