Rio Vista Park — Attraction in San Marcos

What a great find for clean family fun! The river had a nice steady flow durning my visit to the Rio Vista Park on Saturday. Most importantly the River was deep enough for us to float from the drop off point back to the end without having to “walk” our floats though any shallow areas along the way. The water was a little chilly to me. During the heat of the day, it was more of a comfortable chill towards the latter part of the afternoon not so much for me personally. I was fine so long as the suns rays were able to reach any part of my body but the moment the suns rays were no longer kissing my skin, it was borderline too cold for me to enjoy having my body submerged from the chest down.

I spent most of my time in the River. However, the park it’s self was beautiful with what seemed like lots to do for the whole family. It should be noted that the parking is limited so the earlier you arrive helps with one’s odds of finding a better parking spot. By which I mean gives a shorter walking distance from one’s car to the spot for setting up one’s “home base” for a day out at the park.

The park is open to the public and is free for all to enjoy. Plus there was no charge for us to park within and/or in any of the clearly marked areas permitted by the park. “PAY” to park closer is offered by some businesses within a short walking distance from the parks main entrance.

Saw this big guy while floating the San Marcos River back in to the Rio Vista Park on Saturday, 7/30/2022. Never I have seen such a BIG turtle bask in the sun such as he was. Let alone with so many people as close as I was.

Picture shared was taken while floating the San Marcos River back to Rio Vista Park on Saturday, 7/30/2022. I really enjoyed my time at the park and can’t wait to make another trip there.

(Shout out to my one of my dearest friends for...

I used to like it a whole lot more, but during 2020 and 2021 they diverted the river and did a lot of changes. There used to be a great spot underneath the first falls where you could actually lay down and people would shoot over top of you and the fish would come You could stay under there as long as you wanted to. Now they filled it in with concrete so the water kind of goes straight down to the bottom and there's no place where you can stay that stationary. The second waterfall used to be about 12 ft deep and had a little bit of an undercut sort of like a mini cave and it was really cool you could go down there and stay as long as you wanted to. That's all been filled in with cement now. It's unfortunate because there was a trick that you could do and swim underwater from one side to the other but now when you go down the water will hit you so hard it'll pull your mask off your face and the flow isn't even that strong right now. Also on the first falls when you go in you used to be able to swim over to the right and it was all small pebbles and you could walk over to the edge and get out... Their brainstorm was to put about 15 or 20 three foot rocks in there which I slammed into several times no fun trust me. And if all that wasn't enough the Lions are going to start charging $15 to park. Which is going to kill me going there four times a week like I used to. So I'm very disappointed. And if you were to check out my YouTube channel Askjerry... You would see that I used to go there a bunch several times a...

Swimming and tubing: 1st trip: Great swimming, spontaneous things to do or a quick dip as you are not charged any entrance fee. Swimming was fun and it certainly burned a good amount of energy for our 7 and 3 year old boys. The top slide, if you call it that, was a bit rough going down. The 2nd and 3rd was much smoother in our experience. We did not bring our tubes so we ended up buying one on site for $35. If you have your own tubes, highly recommend bring your own. We highly recommend bringing life vest as the waters can be rough as well as the current. Also recommend bringing your water shoes for comfort walking in and around the water area. Be safe and enjoy!

2nd trip: I’d say it was more fund because it was less crowded and we got to slide more this time. Still highly recommended especially during the hot days to stay cool.

Parking: 1st trip: The issue we had was parking because we arrived late in the day. They have available free parking around the area and paid parking as well. We ended up paying $20 for parking but it was well worth the $20!

2nd trip: We arrived around 12PM on a weekday and we were able to find free parking space and not have to pay the $20.

Safety: We did not see life guards in the area but there were police officers in the area making sure folks were sitting where they should be sitting and general safety awareness duties it looked like. They walked around the area and stayed in the area is what we saw. Bring your own life vests or...