Mother Neff State Park

Dan and I drove out to Mother Neff State Park this morning. It only takes a half hour, or less, to get there from our house. We wanted to scope it out for Chris and Kelsey, since they love camping in the various Texas State parks, and haven't been to this one yet.

It was a beautiful fall morning. The temperature was around 80 degrees, so it was perfect for getting out and walking. Mother Neff is a small, forested park, with a few hook-ups for campers and some nice day-use areas. We spoke with one of the rangers, who was doing some maintenance there, and she said that in a couple months they will be completing an expansion that has been going on for a year or two, which will add considerably more camping spaces to the park.

The park sits alongside the Leon River, and fishing is allowed from the bank. In the 1930s the CCC worked there, quarrying native limestone and milling local timber, to construct the pavilion and a couple other buildings, which are all still in use.

There are numerous hiking trails with some points of interest, such as a Tonkawa Indian cave, a stone tower, and a pond. We didn't go to the tower or the pond, but did climb down the rough, rocky stone steps to visit the cave. I was a little nervous about Dan going down those stairs, since he's just seven weeks out from his last knee replacement surgery, but he did great!