Kerrville Riverside & the Llano River Swimming Holes

The Guadalupe runs through Kerrville's downtown park at a width of about 50 feet — limestone bluffs on the north bank and manicured park lawns on the south, with several natural swimming holes accessible from the park trails. The water is clear and cool even in midsummer, fed by springs throughout the Hill Country watershed above. Herons, river otters (rarely), and white-tailed deer are common early morning sightings.

A 500-acre city park on the Guadalupe with 7 miles of hiking trails through cedar-elm woodland above the river canyon. The park has been home to the Kerrville Folk Festival since 1972 — 18 days each May-June of acoustic music on outdoor stages, the longest-running folk music festival in North America. Outside festival season the riverside camping and the bluff-top trails make it one of the most scenic parks in the Hill Country.

The finest collection of Western American art in Texas — paintings and bronze sculpture by Remington, Russell, and their contemporary Texas successors. The permanent collection's Texas Realist wing represents an important regional art movement: painters who worked the Hill Country and South Texas landscape with the same intensity that the Hudson River School painters brought to New England.

A relaxed wine bar on Kerrville's main street with Texas Hill Country wines by the glass and a simple food menu of cheese boards, antipasti, and seasonal flatbreads. The patio looks across the Guadalupe valley; the early evening light through the cedar hills is the right moment to open a bottle of Texas Viognier.

The Llano River runs across a broad expanse of Precambrian granite through the center of Llano — the same pink stone as Enchanted Rock, ground smooth by millions of years of river flow. The river creates natural channels and pools between the rock exposures that are perfect for wading and swimming. Massive pecan trees shade the banks; the water is clear enough to see the river bottom at 8 feet.

The 1892 Llano County Courthouse anchors a small but intact commercial square — the surrounding blocks have a working hardware store, the Badu House Hotel in the former 1891 bank building, and the Llano County Museum in the original 1887 jail. Llano was a planned ranching hub that never quite became the city its founders intended, which preserved its Victorian character intact.

Mason County is the only place in the world where Texas Blue Topaz (the state gemstone) is found — the public rockhounding area on Seaquist Ranch allows visitors to dig for topaz, garnets, and quartz crystals in decomposed granite. The Mason County Courthouse (1909) sits in a classic German Hill Country square; Mason was settled by German and Czech immigrants in the 1850s and the architecture reflects both traditions.