We spent the weekend on the Colorado River near Bend Texas. We stayed at the Barefoot RV park, which is funny since all the grass in the rv area is grassburrs! Don’t even think of stepping outside without shoes! Once you overlook the stickers it is a great place to camp and play. This was our second trip. It has a couple miles of flowing Colorado River. Most is to shallow to tube in, we tried. We kept high centering There are a few big deep fishing type holes. Still it’s gravel bottom and great playing for kids of all ages.
Saturday morning we went to the Colorado Bend State Park. We had a day pass. If you don’t get a reservation ahead you don’t go. It is a nice park. River is wide and deep looking in the camping area. No hookups so dry camping only.
The real draw is Gorman Falls. It is a hike but seriously worth it if you are up to a strenuous 1.5 mile hike one way. Most of it isn’t terrible, but it isn’t a walking path either. It is up and down with lots of boulders and other rocks to navigate. The last 1/4 mile are so is HARD.
Yes this is the trail! It is just as slick as those rocks look. It does have a cable rail that helps you hang on.
Now as to why it is worth the hike....
No swimming in this area but the river is right there to take a dip in if you came prepared. We didn’t so we hiked back. We are pretty sure the return trip back up the same trail was about 5 miles long. My suggestion is get a day pass show up when the park opens hike to the falls first. There are several other hikes in the park if you have the energy. We didn’t. Hiking along the river from the falls to the campground looks interesting if you had someone to pick you up. You can also hike to a scenic overlook then the falls. Because the Visibility was poor we didn’t even try that hike. It was very hot and humid. Not a good combination. The hike to the falls was enough. It showed on our iPhone we did 10 flights of stairs.
