Chalk Ridge Falls Park

My daddio and step-momma were here in Temple this weekend! Visitors! So so lovely. We had a bit of a hard time finding entertainment Sunday, because, well... Temple. But we ended up accidentally finding this GEM of a park, and I must give Dr. Hogan full credit. We were really trying to find a park on Stillhouse Lake (my dad and stepmom are avid fishermen and wanted to check it out), so Brendon found Chalk Ridge Falls Park on Google Maps and off we headed. Turns out, though this park is next to the lake, it is literally just below the damn and not on the lake at all. Whoops! BUT, it was so so so awesome and I'm so glad we decided to give it a chance.

As the name suggests, there are FALLS in this park. A waterfall! A fairly legit one! We were pretty skepitcal as we started our way in. At first the trail followed the Lampasas River and it's kinda meh, but at some point we diverged and discovered, truly, one of the coolest parks we've been to in a while.

We wandered down the trail for a bit, and were kind of like... hmm okay... But then there was this fantastic boardwalk area through the trees and you could hear the falls, so we knew we were close to some action. Then BOOM out of nowhere, WATERFALL!

I mean like actual waterfall! Pretty dang big and full of the clearest water! I think it's a spring that feeds into the river. We didn't find the source (the park ends with a fence, but the stream kept going onto private property) but with water that clear I can only guess spring water.

Creeper in the dark...

And this area was so so GREEN! I guess between the springs and the river itself there's a good bit of water to be had. It was almost jungle like! I think this will be a fantastic park to visit this fall when the leaves start to change. Will that ever happen? Will it, Texas?

My dad's face though. Kudos to my dad and stepmom for trucking along in the heat with us. We didn't expect to go on a hike so we were all wearing flip-flops! Which was kind of perfect since we ended up walking through the stream. But not so great for the trail. I may or may not have accidentally "sat down" and Brendon might have lost his wet flops more than once. Now we know.

That will look familiar if you follow me on Instagram. Shamelessly posting it here again.

Boardwalk through the trees! Booty of my husband! Things of dreams!

I can't get over how green everything was! We're still in what feels like the heat of summer and everything is starting to turn brown and dry from lack of rain. Seeing all this lush nonsense was refreshing. Cooler weather, COME TO ME.

This little section went over another separate spring, far more of a trickle than the rushing water of the waterfall, but still crystal clear. So much water!

I am seriously still blown away by this park. I think by the end everyone was sick of me saying, "Oh my gosh I can't believe this! Can you believe this?!" I just never would have thought. It's not a state park, it's a totally free Corp of Engineers Park just chillin' on the side of the road that normally I would have overlooked. Thank goodness Brendon thought otherwise. There's not a lot of information about it online (this is the best site I could find for it) but apparently there are miles of other trails (all without a trail map to be found unfortunately), another smaller waterfall, and a suspension bridge! We will definitely be back. It is so close to us! And although I am obviously an avid lover of State Parks, I think we should give other parks a chance more often!