Over the Christmas holiday, Chris and I took time away from shopping, parties, and the year end rush to slow the pace of life down to only a few miles per hour on a long hike in Buescher State Park. Nestled south and east of Austin outside of Smithville, Texas Buescher State Park is in part of Texas known as the Lost Pines. The Lost Pines sit at the boundary between the Central Texas Plain and the coastal bend with a touch of the East Texas piney woods. The result is an area of wide open plains and rolling hills topped with pine trees and crisscrossed by the Colorado River as it winds from Austin’s Lake Travis down to Matagorda Bay south of Houston.
At just about 1,000 acres, Buescher State Park is certainly not the largest park in the Texas State Park system. Amenity rich Bastrop State Park, six times as large as Buescher, is just a few miles away on well traveled Highway 71. Unless you happen to get off the main highway onto the back roads, you might miss Buescher all together. The good news is once you make your way into this delightful state park, you will be richly rewarded with a beautiful and diverse forest of oaks, mesquite, and skyward reaching loblolly pines.
Hiking is one of the main attractions in Buescher State Park. A long 7.7 mile hiking loop makes its way from the trailhead near the Cozy Circle Camping Area into the oak and pine forest parallel to Park Road 1C. Along the trail you will experience gently rolling hills, babbling streams, a hidden pond, and if you’re lucky a deer or two. One of the things that make this hike more interesting than others we have done in Pedernales State Park or Bonham State Park is the great contrast between the tree species along the trail. Most trails we have hiked along in Texas feature mesquite and scrub oak with some occasional cedar trees. In East Texas the tall pines dominate the landscape, but in Buescher all of these forest elements come together and the result is stunning.
This is just what we were looking for in a hike – stimulating terrain, solitude for reflection and beautiful scenery. The hike was invigorating but not too demanding with a couple of long gradual climbs near the start of the trail. The hike also held our interest with something different in the terrain or the forest at nearly every turn. A scenic overlook at the top of the climb, mossy rocks in a gentle stream, and beautiful fall colors captured our interest along the hike. Our favorite moment was the discovery of a still mirrored surface pond in the midst of the silent forest.
This was the longest hike we have done to date – a very rewarding journey. It’s always great when we get the opportunity to hike into the forest more than a mile or two where the solitude of the woods surrounds us. Buescher State Park is a great place to explore and enjoy peaceful surrounds. If you’re in Central Texas, bring your hiking boots and take a long peaceful stroll in the Lost Pines of Texas.
