Outdoor Adventure portal for the Texas Hill Country.
Stretching West from Austin, the amazing Texas hill country offers numerous opportunities for outdoor adventure. Outpost Wilderness Adventure has made its home in Dripping Springs, Texas ( The gateway to the hill country) since 2003. This hill country is quickly become one of the premier destination in the United States for outdoor adventures. With incredible rock climbing, mountain biking, kayaking, sailing, scuba diving, SUP and more it is no wonder visitors are flocking to this little known outdoor mecca.
Some of our local (and favorite) venues are listed below
- Rock Climbing
Reimers Ranch & North Shore– located North of Dripping Springs off Hamilton Pool road this limestone climbing destination offers numerous routes from 5.3 to 5.13 with lots of routes in the 5.9-5.12 range. A well bolted sport climbing destination. The Central Texas Mountaineers climbing club maintains the trails in conjunction with Travis County they also do bolt maintenance and replacement.
Enchanted Rock– located near the German town of Fredericksburg this huge exfoliated dome (the 2nd largest in the United States, behind Stone Mountain Georgia) is the Granite climbing destination in the state. Enchanted rock is primarily crack and face climbing with plenty of trad routes (both crack and traditionally bolted lead climbs) . There is also numerous sport routes and bouldering problems. Enchanted rock is a training ground for central Texas climbers climbers preparing themselves to climb in the mountain across the United States. Routes from 5.1 to 5.13 with lots of cracks in the 5.8 to 5.11 range including 5.10 testpieces such as Fear of Flying, Grass Crack, Inominate, Top Choice, Little Friskies and Texas crude.
White Trash Wall– this small limestone band in Wimberly has a interesting array of routes. Contact James is you need information.
Gneiss near Marble Falls- OWA has access to some great bouldering and climbing on a private ranch, book a trip with us to check it out.
Catfish wall– James Faerber and some friends did several first ascents on the wall just off Sandy Creek.
Campgrounds
Rock Dog Campground– Located near Reimers ranch this is a new venue by climbers for climbers! Bound to turn into a hot spot to camp for travelling climbers. They are just East of the intersection of Ranch Road 12 and Hamilton Pool road. Their address is 17751 hamilton pool road Austin, TX 78738 (right around the corner from OWA winter headquarters).
Frontier Outpost campground sits between Fredericksburg and Enchanted Rock it has become a popular spot for rock climbers for a few reason, they are more friendly to a nightly libation than the State Park, you can come and go a bit easier and pay per person rather than per site (was $5 per person) an added benefit is that you can sleep in your car…. a climbers favorite
Oxford Ranch is also popular among climbers and it is just off Hwy 16 between Llano and Enchanted rock, they have a lot of space and basically “never” run out of campsite options, there are some nice big trees to camp under, they do have some RV sites as well!
Pace bend park– this park is owned by Travis county and has a ton of sites, you can swim, mountain bike, kayak, water ski, cliff jump and rock climb (yes there is a bit of rock climbing here). It is located on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Travis.
Pedernales Falls State park– this state park has a good number of sites and rv options, the park has excellent hiking, tubing (not at the falls though, they are off limits) and mountain biking. The mountain biking trails are currently (Spring 2014) being expanded by the Austin Ridge Riders, Thank you Charlie Rou
Krause Springs- this privately owned swimming hole and camping location is one of the best and most scenic places to cool off when Texas begins to heat up. The swimming is very scenic.
Reveille Peak Ranch– this place has such cool camping and the big pavilion you can hang in. The camping sits along the edge of the lake with well built camping pads and some RV hookup available. They will always make space for you but you can reserve in advance.
Mountain Biking
Reimers Ranch– the mountain biking trails here twist and turn to maximize the riding miles available in a relatively small space. The trails are typically fast single track with some spicy technical sections thrown in and some steep up and down through the middle bit. Not usually crowded if you need a quick getaway from the Austin crowds on the Greenbelt.
Pace Bend-great trail system in the center of the loop road at Pace bend, good signage on these semi technical single track trails!
Muleshoe bend– really fun single tracks that winds in and out of the trees near the edge of Lake Travis, short climbs and descents keep the pace fast on this less than 10 mile loop.
Reveille Peak Ranch– well we will just say it, this IS the best mountain biking in Hill Country! They have slickrock, a flow track, pump track, very technical sections, some dirt road and easy options for beginners as well. To get a good taste of the ranch ride the “race loop”. If you want a challenge be sure to try the epic climb on the backside of Decision point overlooking Lake Buchanan. The “league loop” is also a great option for beginner to intermediate riders, this 7 mile loop is fun and challenging.