Wanting to go camping in Texas this spring or summer but worried about the hot weather? Check out 5 of our favorite Texas parks, all of which either feature swimming spots or shady tree canopies to duck under and beat the heat. …

A friend of mine recently asked, “Don’t you get scared sleeping in a tent?” The short answer is: yes. Absolutely and often. Well, let me be completely honest: I encounter some level of fear every time I sleep in a tent. The long answer is: yes. But it’s not that bad, because the main cause of my fear at night is noise + a healthy imagination. Let me explain. …

As we prepped for our trip to Big Bend National Park, TX , we had a few goals: Pattie wanted to plan hikes around big vistas, Andoni wanted to canoe down the Rio Grande, and we both wanted to go backcountry backpacking – for the first time…

When booking our stay in Big Bend National Park, our key focus was backpacking, but we also knew that staying at an established campground has its comforts, so we took a look at the park website just to see if they had any availability. …

In the early 1900s, the location of the Big Bend hot springs functioned as a small health spa featuring a bathhouse, motel, post office and trading post. Today, the old buildings are still intact and able to be viewed from the Hot Springs Canyon Rim Trail along with pictographs on the cliff walls that line the hike, a testament to the popularity of the area far before the 20th century. …

Big Bend National Park is known for its varied landscapes. The river defines its border, desert stretches across the majority of its land, and mountains stand testament to the area’s volcanic past. …

The Texas Hill Country is a well-loved area of our state. With its rolling hills and booming wine country, it has become not only a vacation destination, but a retirement destination as well. It is the beauty of the area that called Andoni’s parents to build a home there recently. As the house plans developed and building got under way, they made several trips to the area to monitor progress. On one of those trips, we decided to join them at Black Rock Park, a public park managed by the LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority). …

If you read our post about planning this trip, you know that it was our first time backpacking, ever. To say we were pumped was an understatement. We were willing to leave both of our families on Christmas day and take on a 9 hour roadtrip to get the job done.

In the end? So worth it. 

One of the highlights of the trip, and the hike Pattie was looking forward to most was to the South Rim. Here’s a chronicle of that journey. …