A Lot Of History For A Little Texas Park
Down a small back road, through a gate and down a dirt country drive, nestled into the Texas hill country 30 miles west of Austin, sits an absolutely stunning private park. Sporting a campground and swimming hole, Krause Springs has been owned by the Krause family for over 50 years. The park was founded in 1955 (so that’s at least 77 years at the time of this blog post) and its 115 acres is home to 32 springs, and some of the biggest Bald Cypress trees I have ever seen.
Diving Right Into It
The fern and moss covered flow-stone cliffs, the giant trees, the elephant ear plants, the constant sound of rushing water; it’s almost too picturesque to be real. It feels like a Hollywood set or some engineered space in a zoo. It is no surprise, then, that this park is so popular (It does make it hard to photograph, though, if one is to be respectful of the privacy of other park visitors).
There are many paths and quite a bit of landscaping in the park. Also a man-made spring-fed swimming pool, if you don’t fancy swimming in the river. Most of the structures are at least in part made of local stone. Geology nerd approved.
Forecast: Imminent Introverted Anxiety Attack
The park is undeniably popular. The above picture is the least peopley photo I could manage of one of the main swimming areas on an off day (middle of the week).
Meandering downstream to the far end of the main swimming hole, the creek transforms from a deep slow pool to a gurgling brook tumbling over rocks. It continues its merry way down till it eventually empties into lake Travis, flanked upon its way by the knees of Bald Cypress and the Texas hill country.
Knobby knees of bald cypress trees.
Let’s Get To The Root Of This Big Wood Thing
The Bald Cypress tree (Taxodium distichum), a member of the family Cupressaceae, is a deciduous conifer and the state tree of Louisiana. It’ll grow almost anywhere in the southeastern United States and, as the pictures here prove, it can get huge.
The tree in the foreground is big. The tree behind it however is gigantic.
This tree’s base has a greater diameter than the width of a king size bed (a guess, as I clearly didn’t measure it). The leaves on that Virginia creeper vine were almost as big as a post card, to give you a sense of scale.
The biggest known Bald Cypress in Texas is in a private campground called Crider’s on The Frio They state its dimensions at a circumference of 36.5 feet and a height of 96 feet. That’s some serious wood Mother Nature’s got there. I haven’t been to take a photo of that towering unit, but the wood here is very impressive as well. I dare say I felt humbled.
Another huge tree (this one hollow) downstream.
A foot for scale. (Toe shoes are awesome by the way.)
Rear side of the same hollow tree.
Just a big old boulder on that tree’s roots.
A different hollow tree obviously. This one is big enough for all of my 6 foot frame to stand up inside with room to move about.
Whatcha’ Doin’?
The park features multiple options for resting and relaxation. Camping, picnicking, swimming, or just stringing up a hammock and reading a book in the shade.
Technically, if you’re the crazy exercise type you could run up and down the many sets of stairs and get a pretty good workout. Yeah! I just found another thing to do here! Seriously though, snarky-jokes-because-I-am-out-of-shape aside, I think the best thing to do here is absolutely nothing. It is serene, peaceful, absolute stress-melting tranquility here, and that is even with the other park-goers…
The trail that the stairs below are part of leads past quite a few picnic tables, most with their own grill, and on down to the pool below the main springs.
Back To Nature
Down stream, the creek narrows drastically and gets real shallow, though the width of the valley tells the story of a pool that was once much larger. What you see below is a large flow-stone cliff. Like the ones up stream, it was created by limestone rich ground water coming out of the ground. Where it exits into a lower pressure environment, the minerals in the water can leave it, and they do so by depositing on the nearest surface that has an electrical charge that attracts them. Molecule by molecule, what you see here is formed.
Yet another waterfall, no surprise with flow-stone everywhere you look.
The plant near the center of the photo, with large heart shaped leaves, is commonly called elephant ear or Taro. Pretty sure it isn’t native, since it’s tropical and all. Though it doesn’t seem out of place amidst water plants and bald cypress.
It got sunny past this point, so though the trail continued on, I did not. I retreated back into the shade of the forest, and back to the almost mystical cool blue pools of Krause Springs.
The Gardens
Besides the swimming, camping and picnicking, there is a lovely garden full of lots of plants, most of which I don’t know the names of. Below is a gallery of some of the better pictures I took of just a few of said plants.
Wildlife
Many critters call the area surrounding the springs home. Below is some type of rhinoceros beetle, female or minor male (there are 2 types of males in rhinoceros beetles, major with large horns and minor with small). This one suffered an unfortunate crash landing, and was stuck upon their back on a smooth concrete surface and so couldn’t turn over. Normally a death sentence either from time or being snacked upon by some predator. Fortunately for this beetle, I just wasn’t hungry enough for such a snack, so I released it onto the live oak nearest their crash site.
Large green dragonfly called a Giant Darner. There were a lot of flame skimmers (a bright orange dragonfly) about, but I didn’t manage to take any clear photos of them.
One “stink noodle” aka the Texas red stripe ribbon snake. I must give off some type of Disney princess vibes because animals I do pick up rarely get fussy about being handled. This one struck at the camera (I don’t like my picture taken either, so I don’t blame him), but let me handle him for a minute or two before starting to wriggle. That said I wouldn’t recommend people just go around picking up animals, they can bite which can wound you even if the animal is non-venomous, as well as transmit diseases and pass on parasites. Even if they posses no potential to harm you, incorrectly handled, you could injure them.
Geology
A lot going on here for geology nerds, enough to make even the most ardent rockhound want to stick corn cob holders in their ears, butter their head, and run off screaming. So lets keep it simple; There be fat crinoid stems in them there rocks… Doubt that they would let you collect them though. Maybe away from the springs. Might ask when I go back, and I will be going back.
