Austin, Texas

#austin #texas #city #voyagercampervan #roadtrip #covidconscious

Our new obsession: Austin, Texas.

Austin is a magical place.

We camped at McKinney Falls State Park right outside of the city for 2 nights. The Texas State Park system is awesome. We had everything we needed at our campsite & really enjoyed the hiking trails in the park. The Upper Falls were pretty dry, but the lower falls were nice after the rain on Friday morning. It was not busy- they had campsites spaced out and you had to reserve everything ahead of time.

Our second day in Austin was adventurous! We woke up and drove to the Greenbelt-which is an awesome park right outside the city. We hiked the Barton Creek Greenway to the Violet Springs Trail for 2 miles to find a spot to rock climb. We brought top-rope gear and set up a spot at the Sanctuary. We were the only people at that spot for hours.

After climbing in the morning we headed to Zilker Park. It's a beautiful park that reminded me of Central Park and Denver. The huge, green space with a view of the skyline-awesome. We rented Austin B-cycle bikes, which are just like the bike share ones that most cities have now, and biked the Ann and Roy Butler Trail. It's a 10 mile trail alongside Lady Bird Lake. Everywhere I looked there was a city park!

We biked about 5-6 miles around town and then back to Zilker Park where we saw the Christmas tree and Trail of Lights!

After 2 nights in Austin, we headed to South Llano River Campground in Junction, Texas to break up the drive to Las Cruces, NM! Unfortunately, we arrived late and didn't get to see much of the park-BUT, this is an International Dark Sky Park, so I was able to use my new Tokina lens for some awesome photos! In the morning before we left, I saw a meteor burn up on it's way into the atmosphere! Coolest thing ever. Part of the Geminids Meteor Shower, happening now until the 14th.

These were taken with a Nikon D5100 and a Tokina 11-20mm f./2.8 wide-angle lens at ISO 3200, f/2.8 & open for 15-30 seconds.