South Llano River State Park — Attraction in Junction

While the park itself was beautiful, I would not recommend camping here due to a very (unnecessarily) hostile interaction with the park rangers and park police. If you enjoy being threatened with jail time and intimidated out of enjoying public parks by power-tripping rangers, then this park is perfect for you. Really wish I had looked at the reviews before going here, because it seems like this is a pattern.

Last weekend our group of friends (16 mid-20s young professionals) reserved two campsites to celebrate a birthday. We are seasoned campers, who often visit, love, and respect state parks. We arrived on a Friday night, and sat around the campfire to talk as we all wound down for bed. Nothing rowdy, just some normal camping fun.

At about 10:30 PM, a State Park Police Officer pulled up to our campsite to let us know that quiet hours started at 10:00 PM and that we were being too loud. All well and fine, we could have been quieter (with a large group, I understand how just us talking could be loud). He also saw that about half the group had a glass of wine or beer in a koozie (again I stress we were not rowdy, just casually enjoying a beer around the campfire), and informed us that public drinking was against the law, then proceeded to take up everyone's Driver's Licenses. Everyone was very respectful throughout the interaction and immediately poured out their drinks. He then issued us a noise citation without giving us a warning, which seemed a little harsh, but fine, whatever. He left our area, and everyone quieted down. Some went to bed and some stayed around the campfire literally whispering for another hour or so before going to sleep, and we thought the interaction was over.

The next morning, several Park Rangers and the same State Park Officer arrived at our campsite at 10:00 AM, surrounding us with several huge trucks, to inform us that they received additional complaints about our noise, and threatened to make our group leave if they heard any noise, "even if it was at 2:00 AM", would give us PIs, arrest us, take us to jail, etc.

They really came back and threatened us with jail as we sat around our campfire playing catch phrase!!!

The whole interaction felt so unnecessarily aggressive, as we were very respectful, did not talk back, and adjusted our behavior (which was hardly out-of-line in the first place) per the State Park Officer's first request.

When the officer was finished threatening our group with jail time, our camping neighbor came over to see what we had done, and was shocked by what we told him. He let us know that hadn't heard a peep from us all night, and even went up to the Park Headquarters to let them know that there must have been some kind of mistake, where he said the rangers were adamant that is was in fact our group.

The final straw that made us leave was when our female friend arrived alone to the park to check in to the campsite, and the state park officer came out of his office for the sole purpose of asking her "I wonder how many of your friends I'm going to arrest tonight". He blatantly seized an opportunity to abuse his power in an act of intimidation. Rather than risk dealing with some bored, ageist jerks, we decided to pack up and head out. We called a local RV park with campsites (North Llano River RV Park, it was lovely!), explained the situation, and were welcomed with open arms.

I have never been treated like this at any other park, and have always had very kind interactions with park rangers. Very sad that young people are being discouraged from enjoying this public park, and we will definitely not...

This is a little known gem in the Texas state park system. The park grounds & campgrounds are pristine-clean with sites that are well-planned & maintained, with plently of private space between you & your neighbors. Its actually a very peaceful "dark sky" park.

There is river access, but access is limited - so don't expect it to be like Garner State Park. One advantage with being so close to a spring-fed river is that the park maintains a healthy amount of wildlife, particularly a very diverse variety of birds - so its birders paradise. Armadillos also abound & can be seen foraging frequently - so if you love armadillos (like me) you'll enjoy their antics.

The reason I did not give this park a 5 was due to two factors:

1. The bathrooms: They're nicely planned & constructed bathrooms, but like most Texas state parks today they are not cleaned often or well, & the building itself is not maintained as well as it should be. This may be because it appears that they are slowly rebuilding the buildings here - as they constructed a brand new visitor's station, store, amphitheater, & concrete walkways - so perhaps this is therefore slated for demolition, but it was difficult to determine due to difficulty in communicated with the office staff, which brings me to the next negatives, the front office staff....
2. The office staff: I had to call a couple times ahead of my arrival with simple but valid questions about the park, & the lady who answered the phone was very short & curt with me - like I was annoying her & taking up her valuable time. Then, upon departure on 6/11/2024 @ 10:15 am, I stopped in the front office to tell the person on duty @ the front desk that as we were dumping our black & grey water tanks at the dump station, we noticed the sign above the fresh water hoses that is intended to inform users it is unpotable water that is unsafe to drink at this site was almost totally obscured & would be completely not seen by someone dumping at night. She just dead-stared me in the eyes, raised her eyebrows, said nothing, & basically gave me the "__-you" face. First I thought maybe she didn't understand me, as she had a thick Asian accent, but then, after an awkward 5 second stare-down I said "Just wanted to let you know". She raises her eyebrows again & says "Do you mean the dump station?". So I replied with, "Yes, where you dump trailer sewerage", & then again, another eyebrow raise with an otherwise blank face for another awkward 5 or so seconds of silence, so I concluded the encounter with one last "Just wanted to let you know". I then walked off & looked at a few things on the store shelves. Still no reply - she never said 'thank you', 'I'll let Maintenance know'....Nothing-Nada. So as I depararted out the door I said "Have a nice day", & she said bye. It was a very odd & unexpected encounter, but her non-response & body language made it clear she was annoyed with me & didn't want to be bothered. Needless to say, I think the front office staff needs some customer service & pleasant-personality training 🙄. Other than those 2 front office people, however, the rest of the park volunteers & workers seemed very nice.

In spite of the few downsides, the ups outweighed the downs at this park, so we will be back. This is still a very nice state park in spite of some unfriendly greeting staff who likely should be seeking alternate...

First off - the park is beautiful. The reason I'm giving South Llano River State Park 1 star has nothing to do with the park itself, and everything to with how our group was treated by park rangers and park police.

We picked this park to celebrate a birthday and enjoy the hiking/camping the park had to offer. We have a large group that regularly goes camping together in state parks across Texas. Each person in the group is intelligent, respectful, and extremely cognizant of proper camping etiquette (i.e. respectful of neighbors, leave no trace, etc.). Until this trip, we've not had a single issue.

Our first night there at around 10:30pm we were approached by a park ranger as we were sitting around the fire preparing to go to sleep. The park ranger said we were being too loud and issued the registrant of the campsite a citation without any warning. We obviously thought this was very harsh but did not dispute as we are respectful of authority (after all, it was after quiet hours and we recognized that despite our best efforts, large groups can get noisy by virtue of the number of voices). We took the citation, and went to bed hoping that tomorrow would be a better day.

We were wrong.

While we were cooking breakfast and playing a game around the fire at around 10:00am, a park ranger and police trucks surrounded our campsite and demanded to speak to the registrant (again). The officer, Officer Dean, said they had received another noise complaint at 2:00am. To us, this was preposterous as we were all asleep hours before that. We tried to make the case that it must've been a mistake because as stated, we were asleep. He insisted it was not a mistake and that if they had to come back he was going to start arresting people and taking them to the local jail.

At this point, we had realized that it didn't matter how we behaved, Officer Dean and company had it out for us and we should consider packing up and leaving just to avoid any further conflict.

Ultimately, the straw that broke the camel's back was the arrival of a friend of ours who was only intending to stay the second night of the trip. Upon her arrival, she visited the front office to pay her park entry fee. While paying, the officer at the desk said something to the effect of "I wonder how many of your friends I am taking to jail tonight". She eventually arrived at our camp site and told us (very confusedly) what had been said to her. At this point we decided it was not worth staying any longer and went to another local campsite where we camped with no issue.

I've never experienced anything like this in any state park I've visited. It is a shame that we were unable to enjoy the park because of power hungry rangers/officers.

I cannot recommend visiting this park if you are intending to camp there and will never come back. Additionally, I will actively encourage people to avoid this park as a result of the treatment imposed upon us from Officer Dean and company.

I strongly encourage management of this park to revisit how it handles...