Thursday, November 20, 2014

McKinney Falls State Park, Austin

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny, 68 degree day and we spent a few hours of it on the Homestead Trail at McKinney Falls State Park.  It had been just over a week since our last hike and it felt so good!  The park is out of the city but still in Austin so a nice place for folks here to go for a good walk and swim in the summer as it is open to swimming and there are some natural swimming pools there:

Onion Creek runs across natural limestone shelves and flows into this "swimming pool" at Lower McKinney Falls

In the 1840's, the McKinney's built a house on this property out of the nearby limestone:

the house burned in the 1940's
Thomas McKinney took advantage of Onion Creek and build a grist mill to grind flour:
remains of the grist mill










another view of the swimming pool and beach area


turtles basking in the sun

We will go back to McKinney Falls
to do the Upper Falls before we
leave for sure!

1 comment:

  1. What a beautiful hike! Can't wait to see it in March! I'll try to remember to compare the water level then with your shots now!

    ReplyDelete

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