US Southwest Texas Hill Country trip suggestions

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vondy

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Looking to bring the family on a 2 day trip through the Texas Hill Country in March. I know there is a mixture of paved and dirt/gravel roads so I don't really expect any challenging off roading. My main goal is to be on a non-paved road as much as possible and do some camping with the wife and kids. I also don't want to be stuck in the car for hours on in because the before mentioned wife and kids will get board and cranky.

Ideally we would drive no more than a couple of hours at a time along a scenic route, stop for some photos here and there and end up at a camp site for the night. Wouldn't mind going through a town like Fredericksburg or somewhere either. Seems like camping would be regulated to a state park unless anyone knows of some better places.

Will be starting from Dallas FYI.

Any thoughts on those that have done it?

Thanks!
 

Rayford94

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I've not overlanded there yet, but I've passed through. There's a lot of water crossings everywhere because of the hard rock and there are a lot of dirt ranch roads, but I couldn't tell you how to get to them. As for the family, camping Inks Lake State Park is amazing. Also, you could spend a full day exploring the "Slab" near Marble Falls. It has swimming and you can hike up and down the river on the granite river bed. There's also at least one cave in the area with its own park with hiking. When I was there, I just pulled up a satellite image or turned onto any dirt road that didn't say "private" or "no trespassing." There's also an OHV park there, but I think it's a little extreme for overlanding. Depends on your set up I suppose.
 

Traveler I

Trying to plan our first overland trail (other than off-road parks) trip, and I like this one because it isn't too far away from Dallas. I think we are looking at one of the Spring Break weekends in March as well.
 

vondy

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Inks looks like a pretty cool park. We might do something like drive from Dallas to Fredericksburg on day 1 to spend the night at a BnB or something. Then do some overlanding on through the scenery to Inks and home from there after a night or two. Now to figure out the path along the way.

Did the OHV park in Hot Springs, AR last year. My brother lives up there so we took my stock 4Runner for a few hours. It was a blast, 4Runner had no problems. Not what we are looking to do this trip though. Especially with the wife and kids freaking out :tonguewink:
 
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Laud

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Might I recommend checking out “How to enjoy Texas” in the submitted routes subforum. Everything you are looking for is in there. And yes, I have done it.
 

Rayford94

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Inks looks like a pretty cool park. We might do something like drive from Dallas to Fredericksburg on day 1 to spend the night at a BnB or something. Then do some overlanding on through the scenery to Inks and home from there after a night or two. Now to figure out the path along the way.

Did the OHV park in Hot Springs, AR last year. My brother lives up there so we took my stock 4Runner for a few hours. It was a blast, 4Runner had no problems. Not what we are looking to do this trip though. Especially with the wife and kids freaking out :tonguewink:
I’m actually looking to go to Hot Springs OHV in the next few weeks. They have two Jeep Badge of Honor trails I’m comfortable hitting in my stock cherokee trailhawk. I still think most trails in the hill country ohv are a lot more intense though.
 
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vondy

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Might I recommend checking out “How to enjoy Texas” in the submitted routes subforum. Everything you are looking for is in there. And yes, I have done it.
Excellent route consolidation! Do you have a favorite in the Hill Country?

I’m actually looking to go to Hot Springs OHV in the next few weeks. They have two Jeep Badge of Honor trails I’m comfortable hitting in my stock cherokee trailhawk. I still think most trails in the hill country ohv are a lot more intense though.
We did the "Snake" trail, F19. Two diamond trail which was pretty laid back for the most part. There were probably 3-4 sections I was not expecting though, more along the lines of what I would call a 3 diamond trail. Had to lock the rear on one section, lot of large loose rocks up hill. Bunch of Jeep guys showed up on the trail with their 35+ tires. They were nice but kept saying they would pull me out at some point. They ended up amazed at what the stock 4Runner would do on aired down highway tires.

It was a lot of fun but I'm ready to do more of a real overlanding trip. Too bad Texas is so full of private land. State is so large and diverse you'd think it would be full of unpaved routes.
 

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@vondy, No favorite. None better than the next. Just go do it!
I also recommend to parallel 281 on the way down...its about 5 hours worth to Llano.
 

roots66

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Has anyone done, or even heard of this Hill Country route?
 
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roots66

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Yes, we had a group go out on it last month. It was a fun ride. We did it in 3 days.
Awesome. Since it's close, I'd like to make the trip soon. I've done HF a couple times. It's good, but I would consider it more a place to practice your technique than as a trip.
 
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Laud

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Has anyone done, or even heard of this Hill Country route?
Done all of it before this was written. Yes, it is a good run. It is also incorporated in the route file I have shared.
 
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roots66

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Done all of it before this was written. Yes, it is a good run. It is also incorporated in the route file I have shared.
Sweet. I saw the file, but am unable to review it on my work system. Gonna download once I get home.
 

Traveler I

some pics from March
 

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I am up for this trip, but I am as ignorant as can be when comes to navigation. I follow the directions on my wage app, which I don't think will work with this. LOL
Good call - Much of this trip was without cell signal, so you would definitely need to use some kind of GPS navigation with the route pre-loaded.
 

roots66

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I am up for this trip, but I am as ignorant as can be when comes to navigation. I follow the directions on my wage app, which I don't think will work with this. LOL
This route looks pretty simple and well marked. I have an old Garmin I should be able to download the route to, as well as BackCountry Navigator. My wife and youngest son want to do this as part of our summer vacation as kind of a intro to them into the whole overlanding thing. Any good fishing spots along the way?