McKinney Falls State Park is located in Austin, Texas, and became part of the State Park system in the 1970's. It sits on what was the land of Thomas McKinney a racehorse breeder and entrepreneur who bought the land in 1840. The park contains a part of the Camino Real (King's Highway) and wagon ruts can be seen from when Texas was owned by Spain in the early 1700's. McKinney also farmed/ranched the land and built a grist mill (which the some of the foundation can still be seen) along the creek. He built a large stone house, also of which the ruins still exist. The park also has several native American historical sites that date back to 5,000 years ago.
I've been to this park many times and it is a very popular spot due to its location in Austin, and it's only 10 miles from my house. Weekends and holidays means lots of day visitors and often the park has to turn people away. I've never been able to camp here because the park is always full/completely reserved. There is lots to do as far as hiking, swimming and mountain biking. There are also a couple of Geocaches hidden in the park although I didn't think to look for any, d'oh!
I was happy when a spot opened up at this park and snatched up the reservation quickly. Although, like most state parks, all of the spots will be reserved yet there always seem to be quite a few empty spaces that no one ever utilizes.
Anyway, I had the trailer loaded and hitched up on Thursday so I could duck out of work early Friday. It took me about 20 minutes to get the park and about an hour to get set up. Since it's getting dark now around 5:30 (and since I skipped lunch) I set about grilling some Bison burgers on the portable propane grill. I was really hoping for a wood fire, but the Central Texas area has been under some form of a burn ban or another since last spring. The temperature began dropping shortly after dark (from a high of 73) and the mosquitoes seemed to be enjoying the cooler weather (and enjoying me) so I retreated into the Aliner. It got down into the low 40's overnight, but radiator kept the Aliner comfortable.
Saturday it got up to around 76 degrees and was a picture perfect day. I almost brought my mountain bike but was glad I didn't. Trying to ride on the trails would have been impossible with all of the people out hiking. It wouldn't have been prudent.
My goal for this trip was to do some maintenance on the trailer, complete some chores and try out a few things I have never needed to use, but thought it'd be good to see if they worked before I actually need them. Also something in the vein of "use it or lose it". So, Saturday afternoon after a brief hike (and the required brief nap) I decided to see if the water heater actually worked. I've had the trailer for 2 years and have never used the water heater, or even turned it on. Now I can say that it does work. At first I was concerned because it would light and then turn off and then light again multiple times but eventually it sorted itself out. I let it run long enough to produce hot water and then turned it off.
My other goal was to set up and familiarize myself the camp stove. I've had it for years but have never needed to use it since the camper has a propane stove. I figured it'd be nice to be able to use if I had something I didn't want to cook indoors, like bacon. It works also. In fact I used it to make green chile mac & cheese while I had one of the thickest pork chops you've ever seen grilling away on the portable grill.
Saturday night was very pleasant (in the low 60's) and I didn't need the radiator at all. Sunday morning I packed up and headed home. The park was very busy, lots of people out and about, lots of tent campers taking advantage of the mild weather, lots of RV'ers too. I didn't see very many pop-ups, if any, as I recall. I did see quite a few van campers, more than I normally do.
As usual, random pics to follow...
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