State park in Austin, at the confluence of Onion Creek and Williamson Creek, includes several hiking trails and the namesake features of the park, the scenic upper and lower falls along Onion Creek
General Information
Children 12 Years and Under: Free
Park often reaches capacity; reservations are highly recommended for both camping and day use. To guarantee entrance reserve passes online, or by calling the customer service center, before visit.
Take I-35 S, Exit 230, E Ben White Blvd, Burleson Rd and McKinney Falls Pkwy. Turn right.
McKinney Falls State Park is a state park in Austin, Texas, at the confluence of Onion Creek and Williamson Creek. It is administered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The park opened on April 15, 1976 and is named after Thomas F. McKinney, a businessman, race horse breeder and rancher, who owned and lived on the land in the mid-to-late 19th century. The park is part of the El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail.
The park includes several designated hiking trails. The namesake features of the park are the scenic upper and lower falls along Onion Creek.
Bald Cypress, sycamores and pecan trees line the banks of Onion Creek and live oak, ashe juniper, and mesquite can be found on the drier uplands. Other trees found in the park include Wafer Ash, Red Oak, Texas Persimmon, chinaberry, Cedar Elm and Mexican Plum. In spring, the roads are lined with flowers, dominated by the Texas Bluebonnet. Cacti can also be found such as the Prickly Pear and Pencil Cactus.
White-tailed deer are common throughout the park, as well as raccoons, armadillos, coyote, cottontail rabbits and Fox squirrels. Many bird species are found in the park such as the Northern mockingbird, Northern cardinal, Greater roadrunner, Carolina wren, Scissor-tailed flycatcher, Painted bunting, Carolina chickadee, Blue jay, Killdeer and Mourning dove. Areas in and around the creeks are inhabited by the Guadalupe spiny softshell turtle, Red-eared slider, Alligator snapping turtle and Blanchard's cricket frog. Many species of snakes such as the Texas rat snake, Texas indigo racer and Western diamondback rattlesnake are also found.
The park also features the Smith Rock Shelter, a limestone overhang used for shelter by Native Americans for hundreds of years, along with the ruins of McKinney's stone house, gristmill and his horse trainer's cabin. The Smith Rock Shelter and the McKinney homestead have each been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "McKinney Falls State Park", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
