A little piece of the tropics lies south of Luling off I-10 between San Antonio and Houston. Palmetto State Park is a great get away if you don’t have much time for an expedition. The park is named after the dwarf palmetto plant and there are so many it feels like you’re in Jurassic Park. The palmetto thrives in wet marshy environments and with multiple sources of water, including the San Marcos River, the shallow clay soils retain and pool water making a swamp environment that these plants love.
DCIM100GOPRO
This small park offers a large amount of fun, both on water and land.
On the water, you can swim, tube, fish and canoe. Besides the flowing river, the park also has an oxbow lake, an artesian well and swamps. One of the treats of this park is the low water crossing of the San Marcos River. The midweek day the Tortuga was there it was stifling hot. A small group of people had decided to make a day of it and brought lawn chairs down to the low water crossing, walked into the middle of the river, set up their chairs and made a day of cooling off on a hot summer day.
On land, hike or bike the trails, camp, geocache, go birding or study nature. The Palmetto Trail winds through a stand of dwarf palmettos, but this is a small park and you can hike the park in less than a day. The short trails will treat you with extinct mud boll pits, wildlife, views of the river and lot of dwarf palmettos.
The park has 19 tent sites or 18 RV sites. The RV site is small and will most likely be full. On several occasions it felt like the suburbs had moved out into the woods, but if you like building new relationships with new friends you will be close enough to make that happen.
Something different in a Texas habitat and worth doing, at least once.
Pros
- Palmetto, Unique
- Wildlife
- Views of the River
Cons
- Limited Hiking opportunity
- Tight RV sights
- Hard to get weekend reservation
- Closes because of flooding