Garner State Park — Attraction in Sabinal

There’s PLENTY of stuff to do at this park. Enough to stretch out to 3 maybe even 4 days and still not get bored. Cabins, tubes for sale, grilling meats, LOTS of stuff available (all within the park) if you forgot something. There’s also a convenience store right outside the front gate.

They even have mini golf and a permanent food truck inside the park for crying out loud!

The check-in experience is a little different than most state parks I’ve been to. You go inside the office, take a number and stay in an enclosed waiting room until they call your number. Then and ONLY then, may you enter the room where the staff take your payment. I visited in December, and it took about 10 minutes to get in, so I can only imagine it’s much slower during the busier spring and summer months. It’s a large park, but the road signage is decent and does a good job directing you to the different camping areas, attractions, trails, etc.

Now, on to the hiking experience!

I must say the trail marking is decent. I never got lost and always knew which trail I was on. They use yellow shoe prints painted on the rocks every once in awhile to let you know you’re on the trail.

Highlights - you MUST check out Old Baldy Summit. It’s a short but challenging hike. Expect a 600ft elevation increase within a half of a mile - so that tells you it’s pretty steep! But the views from the top are SO worth it!

The Crystal Cave Trail - challenging in a few areas, but it leads to a cave. The cave isn’t that impressive though. It’s about 30 feet deep and wide. Easy to get in and out of - I even saw a couple of 8 year old kids in there. I’m claustrophobic when it comes to caves but I was able to handle it for a couple of minutes. Just not a lot to see there.

The Bridges Trail is also considered challenging and includes a few ledges that might make you a tad nervous. But if you just finished the Old Baldy Summit, it gives you a good vantage point to see view what you just accomplished.

Old Horse Trail - wow. It’s pretty rocky and on narrow ledges a couple hundred feet above the trail below. It’s pretty intense. This is the kind of stuff that makes me nervous and gives me nightmares, LOL!

Old Entrance Road Trail - it’s paved, and parts are a little steep, but don’t waste your time on it. Based on the map description, I was expecting to view some awesome old stonework built by the CCC back in the 1930’s. I hiked all the way out there and wasn’t impressed at all. Take the Old Horse Trail above this trail instead.

Pro Tip - the ONLY place I got cell signal was at the top of Old Baldy - and not even for miles around the...

One of the most beautiful areas we have done a week-long camping trip to.

Met new friends, great people camping as is normal for campers.Beautiful area.

We stayed in live oak loop. We had a great time , but not going back . Going back to the area outside in a nicer camp ground though.

Nice place to level a camper on, you must have a large rug because there is a lot of dust and dirt, and mud when it rains. In front of the camper was dust,dirt and very difficult to keep from getting into the RV . Every state park we have stayed in the volunteers, the park, Rangers, and everybody has been tremendous friendly and very diligent, maintaining the upkeep of them. ((( Unfortunately not the case here .)))

A few rangers or volunteers were not friendly or seemed glad to be there. The water was very brown, after returning we had to flush out really nasty water and purge all our plumbing lines.

The bathrooms and shower house is not adequate for the number of people camping there. The bathrooms are not maintained well at all . Dirty, muddy and out of toilet paper as well as moldy showers . We understand with all the dirt there that keeping them up would be a chore, but they did not hardly make an effort .

The men’s shower house, was barely OK. The women’s showers were very difficult to get to use because of people waiting to get in, and some ladies letting a lot of kids just playing them instead of taking a shower and leaving. The infrastructure is old and not reliable. One site had a leak and they shut down the entire loop of water to fix and took them a long time to fix. Then the sewer dump station was out of service also so toting a tank had to go do a distant one to dump portable tank .

The river was beautiful as was the large swimming area. Everybody seem to pick up after themselves well.

The grand kids loved the dance and enjoyed it very much.

The water on the fishing side of the dam was too low to fish. The river and the view was amazing and very enjoyable. Plan on taking lots of water to drink and brush your teeth with because the water is very nasty. We used our Berkey water purifier for our drinking water, which is awesome to have. Instead of toting water.

Verizon phone service does not work at all in or anywhere even near the park.

There was great water pressure and good stable electricity. There is no sewer hookups.

All of the best pictures had family and friends in them so I was limited on...

DISCLAIMER....VERY LONG. This was our first tenting experience and it was great. We saw alot if reviews about arriving early. We tried but ended up arriving at about 120. We were worried about the possible long line we were on our campsite by 140! We reserved our sites a month in advance and did pre registration online. We went with another family and our sites were 451 and 453. So much shade in between our sites. Perfect shaded areas for both tents and a set up to hang out in. These 2 sites are right across the Walkway to the river. Unfortunately, the river was dried out in many areas so we had to walk down a little way to find the perfect spot it was deep enough to jump into on the deep end and shallow enough in the opposite end to prop up a tent and chairs. So on a normal camping trip I will still continue to get those sites due to ease of getting access to river. We went on a sun mon Tuesday and we really didny have anyone near us. The shower closest to us was out of order but both were pretty far despite it being near on the map. If you have the room I would bring a bike so you can get up the hill easier and quicker. Or if you aren't super close to the rr. We had a group with toddler a 7 year old and 12 year old and a lab that hasbt done anything extreme since the pandamic happened lol so we opted on taking the smallest hike before going to take a dip. River blinn trail I only fell once lol. It was fun good scenery for photos when it was the end of trail we had an option to continue to exit or turn around I for some reason said let's keep going but that was a mistake lol JUST TURN AROUND. The walk uphill along the main road was brutal! One complaint was showers/restroom no soap and one of the showers the drain didn't drain so that was gross and I tried not to stand in it. I tried to bath with my toddler but it didn't really work out. So next time either I go shower then come back for him Or what we did was rig up those portable water bag with hose on a tree and we bathed him a lo fresco in the bed of the truck lol( easier just to take him straight to the tent after to get him dressed anyways tips for anyone with small children) ferral hogs are real. We saw like 5 or 6 of them right by our tent! Pretty cool exciting amd scary for our last night there. Overall great experience and we are already planning for the next trip. DEFINITELY TRY...