Miller Springs Nature Center — Attraction in Temple

I visited the Miller Springs Nature Center on 5/15/25 during a weekday morning at 9am. There's another part of the park on the other side called Miller Spring Park and I'm not quite sure if I can walk to it from this side. It doesn't look like it from the map. It's a free park and the parking lot isn't very big. I usually see the parking lot full on the weekends a lot. Even in mid May there's still so many pretty wild flowers. This is a very nice little park. Fairly clean although unfortunately I did see a little bit of trash in areas that are a little harder to get to. It has one area with picnic tables at the entrance with lots of shade made by the large trees around it. There are at least 2 bathrooms at the entrance/parking area. There are several different trails that you can choose. I walked the shortest one and it took me a good hour. Mostly because I was stopping to take photos of all the wild flowers and pretty views. The map shows all the different trails and apparently there are even bike trails. So I'll have to bring mine out one day. I think I'll be coming here for my daily walk/exercise since it's so close to my house. There's a good variety for different levels of walking/hiking. The trails aren't very well marked but I noticed that even if you take one of the two unmarked trails ahead of you, it SEEMS to get you back to a marked trail. I'd take a photo of the map though just in case and some water for sure. This was my first visit and I saw a turtle and either a cardinal or red robin.. not sure as it was too far away (and also I don't know anything about birds). Even though it's close to a major road, it was still quiet enough to hear the...

I had an amazing time at Miller Springs nature reserve on New Year’s eve 2021. I’ve been here before but this time I hiked further up along the back boundary of the park way up on top of the cliff. I was barefoot hiking the whole time and ended up going very far down closer to the dam.

At one point I stopped at a lookout point and sat down to write in my journal. After a few minutes I noticed something moving out of my peripheral vision and looked over and it was a scorpion about 2 feet away from me heading my way. Luckily I saw it in time and was able to move it away from me or else it may have stung me.

I walked further down by the dam and found a way to descend onto the lower trails and walk back. At the end of the hike I had walked around 3 miles which was a really solid hike in a beautiful spot. I will definitely come back...

The things we were hoping to see we were able to find, and they did not disappoint..! We were looking for the large rock formations and caves, and also for a waterfall we had seen someone else post. The problem is, these trails are not well marked, so make sure you have a good trail app and a printout of the official trail map from the park's website just in case. We tried to follow the "Belton Dam Trail" which we had found on the trails.com app, but it is not an official trail so it was not easy to follow completely. The park does have gorgeous views of hills, interesting paths, and the rock formations were amazing. Go prepared, take LOTS of water and food, and have fun!...