Austin & San Antonio, TX

Michael’s sister told us about the Texas bluebonnets years ago and we timed our visit to Austin to see them! We stayed at McKinney Falls State Park, just 15 minutes from downtown Austin. The campsites were large and had water/electric hookups.

We were at McKinney Falls the second half of March and over those two weeks watched the bluebonnets bloom to peak, followed by the appearance of Indian paintbrush. These fields were inside the state park, so we got to see them on our daily walks.

In addition to all the wildflowers, there were also trails around the falls.

We noticed right away that Austin seemed like a very nice livable city, though we were experiencing it in March weather. We’d probably have a different opinion in the summer months.

We spent our first weekend day at Zilker Park, a 350-acre city park in the heart of the city, where we did a 10-mile bike ride along the Texas Colorado River (different than the main Colorado River of course, but it confused us at first). It seemed like everyone in Austin was at the park walking/biking this path and there were also a lot of people kayaking/paddleboarding in the river.

We also spent a day exploring downtown Austin on foot. The Texas Capitol Building and the surrounding park were nice places to walk. We thought it was interesting that when they expanded, they built it underground. A lot of buildings have murals and quotes which are fun to find.

Another fun thing to do in Austin from mid-March until November is watching the Congress Ave bridge bats fly out at dusk. With an estimated 1.5M bats, its the largest urban bat colony in the world.

Here is a short clip of the bats flying away. It takes over half an hour for them to all emerge and fly away but you can only see well for the first 5 minutes and then it’s too dark. There are also volunteers that collect and rehabilitate sick/injured bats and we got to see one up close. It was very cute.

We also visited the Blanton Museum of Art on UT’s campus on a ‘fee-free day’. The building in the photo below is not the actual museum, but a Texas-sized piece of art that you can go inside!

One reason we hung around for two weeks was to have time for a day trip to San Antonio, ~80 miles south.

We started our day with a visit to the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, which is collectively 4 of 5 Spanish colonial missions that are currently active parishes as well as being a national park. San Antonio’s 5th mission is the famous Alamo.

There is a 16-mile bike ride between missions that we would have liked, but for the sake of time, drove around. We especially liked Mission San Jose (below). It is the largest and most intact. Most missions only have the churches remaining, but this one still had other structures such as the dwellings in the photo below.

Mission Espada (below) was also worth a visit. A unique feature is the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the US and this is a major reason the missions are also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Next, after spending an hour circling the city center trying to find a parking spot, we visited the Alamo. After political/religious ties between Indigenous people and Spain were established, the missions were often turned over and used for other purposes. The Alamo was the location of a lost battle, that spurred a rally for Texas independence. And, it is a very busy touristy place! I think Texans definitely remember the Alamo!

Last, we picked up to-go beers and walked around San Antonio’s treasured River Walk. We were surprised at how long the River Walk is, with miles of beautiful walkways and bridges along the San Antonio River.

We had a record-long drive day to our next stop in Carlsbad, NM. We departed before sunrise and drove through beautiful Texas Hill Country in the dark, unfortunately. This was only the second time we’ve had to move our house in the dark, the first time was in Texas as well. The last portion of our drive was through what’s called the Permian Basin, an area rich in petroleum and natural gas. All we saw for 2+ hours were gas flares.

Next up, we visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park and dip back into Texas to visit Guadalupe Mountains National Park.