Palmetto State Park - San Marcos River Trail

Getting there: From Austin head south on Highway 183. Proceed through Luling and turn right onto Park Road 11 south of town. The park ranger station is two miles down the road on the edge of the town of Ottine. To get to the trailhead for the River Trail continue down Park Road 11 and turn left after crossing the third bridge. Park near the Rectory building and head east on the road for a short distance looking for the trailhead on the left side of the road.

The Hikes: The River Trail, like all trails at Palmetto, is a short stroll through flat, muggy terrain. The swamp-like conditions could mean oppressive heat in the middle of summer, but on our visit during August the heavy tree cover over most of the trail help offset the high temperatures.

The trail begins at the waypoint "Trailhead" on the map. There is a sign along the side of the road and a wooden box in which interpretive trail guides that are used for both this hike and the nearby Palmetto Trail. The guide includes some excellent illustrations so we suggest that you pick one up.

The trail descends down a set of stairs towards the San Marcos River soon after the trailhead. From this point on the trail will follow along the banks of the river for almost a quarter mile. The banks of the river consist of loose dirt that is easily eroded away by the river, so there are few spots at which to get really close to the water.

The trail conditions were improving after the disastrous floods that plagued much of Texas a couple of months earlier. While the trails were cleared of debris, there was plenty of branches and brush piled up here and there along the trail as a reminder. The surface of the trail is often sandy, particularly along the river's banks.

After covering a bit over .15 miles the trail comes to a Y, marked on the map by the waypoint "Y-Left". The guide did not indicate which way to go, so we choose left to complete the loop in a clockwise direction. It turns out that this is not the way you want to go if you wish to follow the interpretive guide in numerical order.

As the trail turns to the south and prepares to return back to the trailhead the hiker is presented with the closest approach to the river. It's possible to get down to the level of the water, though the river is often murky in this section due to the nature of the river's banks. The soft soil is easily carved by the river, which can result in it changing direction in a geographically defined moment's notice. Elsewhere in the park lies an oxbow lake that was created when the river changed course and cut off the flow of water from a former path, which turns into a pond.

The trail turns away from the river and a change in vegetation becomes apparent quickly. There is more shade due to the thick tree cover and whereas the river banks seemed to have a wider variety of foliage there seems to be much greater concentrations of fewer species here such as Elms and Hackberries.

The trail makes it way back to the Y split earlier and then retraces its steps upstream and back to the trailhead. We recorded a trail distance of half a mile and completed the hike in 52 minutes, which included time spent reading the interpretive trail guide.