Weekend Road Trip to Austin, Texas

Austin is a beautiful city located 3 hours south of the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Last weekend, we opted to do a quick road trip down to the Austin area. I’ve got the road trip itch, and I feel like I’m missing the mountains back home (in Whistler, Canada that is). In order to satisfy my need for the great outdoors, we have been exploring and hiking some of the state parks in Norther and Central Texas.

Texas itself is a fairly flat state, however, there are some amazing hiking trails in the central and southern part of Texas. With an easy trip down the I-35 to Austin, we were able to explore a bit of McKinney Falls State Park before heading back home to begin another school week with my little kids. Now I’m not one to do a one activity road trip. If I’m going to drive 6 hours round trip, I’m going to hit up several stops along the way. We have previously been to Austin last Winter, that was solely based on foodie stops for my husband, and exploring the downtown Austin area. This trip, we were focused more on the outdoors. My little babies are growing up, and becoming quite the outdoor adventurers. My son is a typical boy, loves to hike, climb trees, and explore. So McKinney Falls was the perfect stop for us.

Our trip itinerary:

We headed down to Austin Saturday night. 6 hours in the car in one day is a long day for our little kids, so we opted to break up the trip with a 3 hour drive down to Austin, spending the night in the North Austin/Round Rock area, before continuing on our journey. Since we had the kids in the car for 3 hours, our first stop was to a park, let the kids stretch out their legs, burn off some energy, and work up an appetite for dinner.

If you’re ever in the Round Rock area, I highly recommend this amazing park called Play for All Park. Make sure to bring a bike or scooter for your kids. There is a little town outside of the actual park itself, solely devoted to kids being able to ride bikes and scooters through this little town, that was equipped with traffic lights, stop signs and painted lines on the streets to keep the traffic flowing. In all honestly, this area was total chaos, given that kids don’t follow the rules of the road, but it was a lot of fun. There is also a Nascar type track as well for kids to zip around. On top of all that, there are several playgrounds for kids to play on and explore, along with a sand pit, and another playground. It’s a really amazing park. I wish we lived closer to this park, I would go here all the time with my kids. It was, however, very busy for a Saturday afternoon, with tons of kids, and birthday parties. It’s really easy to lose your kids in all this chaos. Thankfully, my husband and I take one kid each, and follow them around the park, making sure they are safe.

Sunday morning, we all woke up nice and refreshed, ready to start our adventures. First stop was to a slime factory. My daughter is really into slime right now, and the largest manufacture of slime in the US has a location in Austin. They are just a warehouse, with no storefront, but my daughter was happy to see the warehouse itself. After our amazing adventure outside the Peachybbies warehouse, we headed off to the Cathedral of Junk. I’m a pretty big fan of quirky road side attractions, I think they make a road trip that much more interesting, and when searching for things to do in the Austin area, this one peaked my interest. Google maps took us through a residential area, and we ended up outside someone house at 8am on a Sunday (yes my kids get up very early, even on weekends). I was a little surprised this monument of junk was located in someone’s backyard, I wonder what the neighbors think of this. However, if you’re up for something interesting and quirky to see while in Austin, the Cathedral of Junk is one to add to your list. Outside the house is a large bell to ring for access to the cathedral, along with a pretty funny sign that says “bang head here,” I’m assuming to get someone attention. The sign alone makes me think that the owners of this cathedral are pretty interesting characters. I would have loved to sit down with them and have a coffee, learn what this monument is all about. I’m sure they are quite the characters and have some amazing stories to shower. However, we didn’t want to disturb people in their homes at 8am on a Sunday, so we just snapped a few quick pictures and carried on with our adventure.

McKinney Falls adventure

McKinney Falls State Park is only 12 minutes away from the Cathedral of Junk, and quite surprisingly located really close to downtown Austin. Given that McKinney Falls is a state park, you have to purchase tickets in order to enter the park. The state park costs $6/person, with the kids being free. You can purchase tickets at the visitor center, however, it makes it easier and quicker to purchase them online at the state park website.

We like to adventure outside early in the mornings, 1) because we have small kids who don’t know how to sleep in, and 2) even in Fall, it’s still hot here in Texas. We began our hike around 9am, I will say, their bathrooms are quite clean, but don’t be fooled if the map says there is a “playground.” It consists of one swing and a small sandbox, surrounded by a bunch of grass. Thankfully, we weren’t there for the playground.

Exploring Lower McKinney Falls

We parked our car near the McKinney Falls Smith Visitor Center, and opted to explore the lower Falls area, because of our small kids. The trail leading to the lowers falls was really fun for the kids to explore. The lower falls trail also takes you to Old Baldy, a 500 year old tree, found along the trail. The park map makes this trail a little confusing, with multiple stopping points, but if you park your car at the visitor center, and follow the signs to the lower falls, you will happily find your way. It’s a really easy, and beautiful trail to follow. From there you can wade in the water to the lower McKinney Falls area.

There is also a parking lot for the Lower McKinney Falls, however, you will miss seeing Old Baldy, and the Smith Rock Shelter. The trail from the visitor centre to lower McKinney Falls takes roughly 10 minutes, so I don’t recommend driving strait to the Lower Falls parking lot, you will miss some nice views, and a fun trail.