JUNCTION, Texas – The great outdoors — the South Llano River State Park to be exact. This park features two miles of river frontage, 2,600 acres, 67 camp sites, 23 miles of hiking and biking trails, and it’s a certified dark sky park.

“It’s a spring fed river that has never gone dry in the history of recorded water levels here at the park,” Becca Manning, Park Superintendent for the South Llano River State Park said.

Speaking of history, this state park has an interesting back story.

“The park itself was donated to us by an old rancher back in the 70s so now we’ve kept alive some of those ranch life remnants is what we call them,” Manning said.

Staff kept the remnants to give visitors a feel of what ranch life was like, along with all the other activities and experiences you can find here. 

The South Llano River State Park has something for everyone. From hiking, to birdwatching at one of the four bird blinds, to of course relaxing in the river. 

“If you’re not super outdoorsy and you don’t want to go hike a 12 mile hike in the back country, that’s totally understandable one of the best parts about this park is that we offer tubing. So, there’s not much activity to that. We have kind of a natural lazy river here behind us and so we offer tube rentals at the park headquarters,” Manning said.

Now for the best part, to access all of this, the park fee is only $5 for people 13 and up. Senior citizens also get a discount so you can bring the whole family. The cost for the tubes is $8 each.

“The Junction area and South Llano River State Park is a very safe and enjoyable place to spend time with your family and people of all ages especially children will love the solitude and the real experience with the wildlife and natural surroundings,” Manning said.

There are also other river access points within the City of Junction. These points are also near the City park and Municipal Pool.