Anyone been to Garner recently. Wondering if the water is up with all the rain recently in Texas.

Also any general pointers, we're going next week, first time I'll be back since I was a teenager

I wasn't at Garner but I drove over Frio at Concan and was working at deer lease about 1.5 miles from Garner. We had no real measurable rain out there recently. We had moisture and slight mist, enough to get ground wet but zero runoff.

River is very low and I suspect it is the same at Garner. It will still be fun but I doubt any float is possible without hiking

Was out there in that area last weekend. Water is as low as I've ever seen it in 50 + years of going there.

Most of the RV parking areas are like being in a Walmart parking lot.

Ryan the Temp said:

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Most of the RV parking areas are like being in a Walmart parking lot.

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Did our best to get one that had been recommended and had trees in the area. Can't win em all but we will survive.

Had hopes for a cabin but they were all closed for construction. Didn't want to rent a cabin outside the park so my kiddos can experience the river, hiking, the dance, etc without having to transport in daily.

We camped in the state park last weekend. Didn't attempt to tube so can't speak to that but the main swimming hole within the park still had lots of water. As always, we had a blast between the hiking, swimming and dancing.

Great to hear. I'm excited to be going back. The wife keeps yelling at me that I'm not telling her enough to expect. I said it's a trailer, in a camp site, with a cool river, hiking and a dance in the evening. Your asking and I'm answering, stop expecting more of an answer

Kind of like a beach house is a house on a beach. This is a trailer in a park on the river.

Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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Great to hear. I'm excited to be going back. The wife keeps yelling at me that I'm not telling her enough to expect. I said it's a trailer, in a camp site, with a cool river, hiking and a dance in the evening. Your asking and I'm answering, stop expecting more of an answer

Kind of like a beach house is a house on a beach. This is a trailer in a park on the river.

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That's womanese for "I don't want to go, take me to a luxury hotel and a nice dinner".

agracer said:

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Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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Great to hear. I'm excited to be going back. The wife keeps yelling at me that I'm not telling her enough to expect. I said it's a trailer, in a camp site, with a cool river, hiking and a dance in the evening. Your asking and I'm answering, stop expecting more of an answer

Kind of like a beach house is a house on a beach. This is a trailer in a park on the river.

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That's womanese for "I don't want to go, take me to a luxury hotel and a nice dinner".

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Manage expectations. This part of the state hasn't participated in the recent rains, unfortunately. We remain the epicenter of the highest drought level in TX. Flow of the Frio River is just above 4 cfs. You probably want that closer to 50 cfs as a minimum for viable tubing.

We'll take all the extra rains the rest of you want to send over here W/NW of San Antonio.

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/08195000/#parameterCode=00060&period=P7D&showMedian=false

I honestly wasn't expecting to float. Just play and swim in the river. Relax in camp and hike the trails.

Strange that the Frio area is that bad already this summer while the Llano River area seems to have had plenty of rain this spring. I wish we could send some of the 15 inches of May rain we got from the Houston area out there.

It'll be as nice as it ever was except all that summer crowd will be jammed into the few pooled spots in the river and the water will be unusually warm.

Alright as I mentioned it's been a while for me. What do I need to remember to pack…

Haven't been in the park since 2001

TIA

Looking at the state radar from 300 miles away, it looks like the entire upper Frio watershed got a good soaking rain last night and continuing this morning. Glad to see it finally hit the right spot.

We got nothing about a mile and half west

You need a good generic camping list or park specific stuff?

They have opened up a TON more official hiking trails than they had in 2001 in the expanded portion of the park, and you can mountain bike quite a bit of them.

If you're going to have an adult beverage in public, be very discreet about it and I recommended transferring it to a drinking bottle something else just to be safe. The degree of enforcement varies by park officer and who the superintendent is.

If you are allowed to have a fire, best just to buy and bring wood. The ground is picked clean by "gatherers". You can do what my dad does and drive around Sunday evening or Monday morning after all the week-Enders leave and abandon their excess firewood, which he will collect. Hit or miss.

If the river is very low, it will be a zoo where it is pooled all day. I recommend fairly early morning or dinner time swims. We sometimes go down to the river in out of the way places at night to just relax in the water with some peace and quiet. The park rangers discourage this but it isn't technically prohibited. Again, if you are discreet they are usually watching for trouble makers.

We went about a month ago and enjoyed our little river spot off the Rio Frio campground.

We drove over to the big main swimming area and it looked like a zoo with all the day use people.