Austin is amazing for many reasons, but one of my favorite things about Where We Live, is easy access to green space. Seriously, where else can you live 10 minutes from downtown AND 10 minutes from an amazing state park?! 🙂  McKinney Falls State Park is a 726 acre park with hiking trails, waterfalls, camping areas, and so much more.

For this visit we went out right after a huge storm came through bringing tons of rain to our drought stricken region. Tons of rain = flash flooding so I knew “the falls” would be amazing and they did not disappoint! The area pictured below is a popular swimming spot, where usually it is very easy to walk along the limestone edge. But as you can see here, the strong waters make crossing impossible. Just look at the bent over trees in the background…I can’t imagine what it must have looked like the night before!

Flood waters rise up the trunks of the cypress trees in a usually popular swimming/beach area (Lower Falls).

Seeing as the park is over 700 acres, it is impossible to showcase it all in one, or even 5 trips! These photos are from the parks “upper falls” area where the water carves out amazing crevices in the limestone and the water is crystal clear.

There are so many awesome memories to be made at McKinney Falls. It is a favorite spot for our little family and I am happy to share a little bit of it with you.  Next up in the Where We Live blog circle is the amazing Rebeccah Parks. Visit her blog to see what its like where she lives in Minnesota.