The Texas Hill Country is truly a beautiful region of the state. While the level of elevation will never compare to the Rockies or PNW, when most of the state is flat, these hills are a welcomed change. Positioned on the Edwards Plateau, there are many great outdoor areas ready to be explore and Garner State Park is one of them!

The Frio River winds for 2.9 miles through Garner, and the water is beautifully blue and refreshing. I hadn’t visited this park in many years, and when my friend Smitty contacted me about wanting to get into camping and was looking for a place that could be used as a trial run for Big Bend, we decided to take off to the Hill Country.

Smitty and I chose to head to Garner in late September. The weather is usually very pleasant this time of year in Texas. Even though the days can still be fairly hot and humid, the evenings cool off making it more comfortable to sleep, and with the frio river right there in the park, we could always escape the heat during the day from our time on the trails.

How many of us can say that we still have a friend that we’ve known since kindergarten? Well Smit is that friend for me. Other than a wild senior trip to Cancun, Mexico after graduating high school, this camping trip to Garner would be the first time that Smitty and I spent traveling and exploring together. Not gonna lie, it felt really good to hear him say that I was the first person who came to mind when he thought about who he knew that would be down to go camping!

Smitty has always been very open about liking to spend time in the outdoors, but he prefers to sleep inside somewhere with AC, so we decided that it would be best for him to borrow some of my gear before investing in his own on the chance that he discovered adventuring fully outdoors just wasn’t for him. I had a tent he could use, and he had an air mattress. The only thing I recommended for him to purchase was a bladder so that he could pack along enough water for our time on the trail. Everything else we would need for our long weekend camping was already loaded and always at the ready in the van!

So that we didn’t have to deal with waiting for the ferry, he and I met in Garner instead of riding together. I arrived first, so I got everything set up, moved rocks out of the spot where his tent would go, and got dinner going. Once he arrived, we pitched his tent, finished getting his area set up and enjoyed dinner. there was a trail leading down to a section of the river out behind our campsite, so we enjoyed a little after dinner walk to the water. The best part of that first night was how dark the park was, which allowed for the best star gazing either of us had experienced in a long time. Garner is not a certified dark sky park, so this was a welcomed surprise. We sat in our chairs under the milky way for hours. This became our nightly ritual for the duration of our time in the park! It is a new goal of mine to be able to photograph the milky way.

We had two full days in the area, so we spent our first out on the trails exploring the park. The elevation of Garner is 1890ft. I know that may seem like nothing, especially if you have ever spent any time in the mountains, but where we live and where we grew up is a whopping 7ft! Needless to say, we felt like we were hiking mountains! As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Smitty originally reached out in an effort to organize a practice run for exploring Big Bend National park in south Texas. The elevation in Big Bend is around 8,000ft. While Garner is still a ways from reaching that height, the Hill Country area is the closest in Texas to preparing someone for Big Bend.

We covered some serious ground this day, beginning on the Blinn River Trail, we joined up with the Madrone Walkway which connected to the Crystal Cave Trail.

From there, we jumped on the Bridges trail which led us to the Wilks trail and allowed us to jump on the Ashe Juniper trail providing an incredible viewpoint of the backside of Old Baldy, the highest point in the park. After taking a breather, soaking in the vistas and drinking a ton of water, we made our way back down. We hiked a total of 13.6 miles that day! Needless to say, we both slept very well that night.

In my opinion, it doesn’t get much better than spending time with the ones you care about, especially when that time spent together is pure and simple. We weren’t attached to our phones, our minds weren’t a million miles away. We were present. We put our bodies to the test on those trails, enjoyed deep conversations about so many topics, broke bread together over the camp table, and convened with the stars. It was perfect.

For our second full day in the area, we ventured away from Garner State park to partake in a unique experience, but you’ll have to come back next week to read all about it!