[wind blows]
- Folks that come out here to South Llano River State Park,
the main draw is probably the river,
which is why it gets its namesake.
Spring fed, year-round flow!
And then we also have the unique feature of rising up
into the Edwards Plateau.
We go from about 1,700 feet and then rise up another 400 feet!
And throughout that you have canyons, and bluffs
that provide some of the best pictures of the
Hill Country you are ever going to see!
[water riffle]
- ANGLER: Fish on, oh, a Guad!
[hummingbirds flutter]
- Ya, I haven't seen this many in one place before.
They're hovering around the feeder trying to find
a hole to put their little beak in!
[birds chirping]
- South Llano River has four bird blinds.
They all have a water feature.
- BIRDER: There's a bunting!
- SHERRY: And so, you can always count on seeing
a lot of bird activity.
- There's the jay over on the feeder again!
- BIRDER: Oh yeah!
- BIRDER: Oh man!
Tons of birds!!
[paddles splashing]
- SCOTT: For the kids, there's a number of opportunities
where you can hop in the tube, float for two, two and a half
hours down the South Llano River
and get back out and do it again.
- Definitely the hidden gem out there.
It's got a small little shoot area, the current's
not too fast.
Great for children that are like 12 and under,
that want to float a river that's not to hectic.
I consider it really safe for children,
so that's pretty much why we really come here!
- HOLLY PLATZ: You don't often think about the kind of bugs
that live in the river.
- KID: Get em!
- HOLLY: Sweep it against the plants, and then dump
it into your bucket, ok.
- KID: The bug!
- DAD: You got a bug!
We caught something!
- It's neat for the kids to get out and play in the water,
as well as find out about the different bugs
that live in the water!
Look at this!
- I got a beetle!
- HOLLY: Any activity they're in nature,
and they're discovering things!
Hold it real flat there you go!
It's priceless though really to see them all get
excited about everything!
[water splashes]
- SCOTT: The entire park is great for hiking
and biking trails!
Any time you want to hop on your mountain bike,
you have over 25 miles of trails!
I like to mountain bike back here because there's
not a lot of other people back here!
[bike rumble on trail]
Twenty-one hundred acres is a lot land to go play around
on a mountain bike.
It's nice that as soon as you get back here in the
back country with your bike, you really don't
hear anything but birds and the wind!
[grill sizzles]
- DAD: You all ready to eat!
- It's not a big park, you know,
you're not going to have party crowds out here.
And it's a very family-oriented park!
You know, and it's quiet too!
[fire crackles]
- SCOTT: We are an international dark sky park.
- RANGER: Those little spots are moons!
- SCOTT: If we're having a star party, people can come,
we have interpretative ranger that will show you
all the constellations of the sky!
[bird sings]
[bee buzzing]
[wind blows]
We go to our parks, there's that primitive feel!
And even though you can be sitting in the campground
with 50 other campers, you only walk a hundred yards
and you're going to be all alone in the woods!
[water riffle]
And that's what makes it special, because there is
space to be had out here.
[gentle wind blows]