Garner State Park
Concan, Texas
Garner State Park is one of those benchmark locations that every true
Texan has been to or needs to go to before going on to that big round up
in the sky, even if it’s just for the day.
Garner State Park is the most popular Texas state park in for overnight camping. However if you think you are going to find a secluded campsite and keep to yourself you had better find another park to camp in. At Garner State Park camping is a social event, in the best possible way. Since it inception in 1934 and when the main structures were completed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1941 the park has more than doubled in size. Garner is the only state park that I know of where you have to take a number just get in line at one of four services windows just to check in.
Camping
The park has cabins, screened in shelters, camp sites with water and electricity for RV’s and Tent sites. You can even reserve a site and sleep on the picnic table under the stars if you want to. I’m sure it’s been done. Every camp area has an adequate bath house, however it’s the only one I’ve ever seen with a 15 minute parking limit. So if you planning on being there awhile, you had better walk.
The River
The Frio River, a primary tributary to the Nueces River, is just as
its name says, cold. Tubing down the Frio River has been a right
of passage for Texans for generations. If the river is a little
low and you have walk a bit beware of the poison ivy. Sun burn
skin and a poison ivy rash is an uncomfortable combination that will
make sleeping on that picnic table unbearable.
Hiking & Biking
The park is covered with hiking trails that cover the park from the highest mesa, the biggest cave to the waters edge of the Frio River. Some trails are open to bicycles. Did you forget to bring you bike? You can rent one at the camp store. Save your strength, there is more to come.
The Dance
In the beginning there was Garner State Park and then there was the dance. The jukebox dance is held nightly on summer nights from Memorial Day to Labor Day. From the Lindy Hop to the Bunny Hop, from the Waltz to the Whip, every dance imaginable from 1941 to today has been performed on that dance floor.
The Camp Store
Need an tube for the river, a bicycle for the trail, a battery for your flash light? They have it here. Need a fish hook, a roll of duct tape, a can of WD-40, a Q-tip, an ice cream? The have it here? You need it? They've got it. End of story
