Ain't no "dude ranch", son https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guest_ranch Jacob's Well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob's_Well_(Texas)
The ol' room enough for me but not for thee heh Yeah I never got to see it in it's glory, took my kids in '24 I believe and iirc the area didn't look or smell good. Lived near San Marcos for 2 years, was never able to get into the blue hole, every time we felt up for it and checked it was booked out for 2+weeks, even hamilton pool was getting booked out. Texas just doesn't have nearly enough publicly accessible nature. Funny enough I had an easier time finding parking at trails in Houston too, just not a "hiking" type of peoples, comparatively to whats going on around Austin, I guess. San Marcos river is really, really nice during the towns slow times.
No, not like that, but they've ruined several towns (Wimberly, Dripping Springs, Fredericksburg, etc...) and I'd kinda like the Hill Country to not get citified by city people. I know that's a crazy thing to say.
On one hand I totally get it, and Texas clearly needs to do a better job at regulating water usage in sensitive areas. On the other hand I find it awfully elitist for one man to think he can tell another man he doesn’t belong. What are today’s city folk but country folk of the past, and who has the right to deny their attempts to return home. But again I do understand both sides of it, it’s conflicting, but I lean on the side of people being free and free of judgement to be free in most circumstances.
Drive west of Austin until you're past the subdivisions, spreading like a disease west (more or less) from Austin, then keep driving until you relax. That's the Hill Country. A disease that's an ongoing catastrophe, thanks to the Legislature preventing Austin from protecting the fragile region on different occasions over the last 50+ years - usually due to a member of the Lege (from the Panhandle or some other "not remotely Austin" area) introducing a bill not mentioning Austin, but applying only to Austin that makes the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction meaningless. A real bummer I've watched play out for decades, and hardly alone in doing so. A corrupt display, in my humble opinion.
Always wanted to move to San Marcos when I retire. Uncle lives there now and his quote is," You don't want to come here. It's gotten to big for its britches". "Can't even tube the river without a crowd of drunkos".
