Buescher State Park – Texas State Park 16/89

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The Deets

Buescher State Park is located in Smithville, TX. It is just under an hour from Austin, TX, and only 18 minutes from Bastrop, TX, and Bastrop State Park. The two parks share a border, and you can drive through one and into the other. Buescher State Park covers just over 1,000 acres. During your visit, you can hike or bike the nearly 6 miles of trails, camp, fish, paddle, geocache, or rent a cabin. The park is open from 6 AM to 10 PM daily. They do schedule prescribed burns in this park, so check out their website or give a call to see if they’ll be burning during your visit. Park entrance fees are $3 for a driving tour pass, or for day passes, $5 per adult, and free for children under the age of 12 (or completely free for everyone if using a Park Pass).

The History

Buescher State Park gets its name from Emil and Elizabeth Buescher. It is due to their generosity that the park exists at all. They donated a total of 318 acres of land to the state for the park. Emil’s heirs donated another 318 acres after his death. The rest of the land in the park was acquired from the city of Smithville. When the park opened in 1940, it was a bit bigger than it is now. It was originally 1,738 acres in total, but the state deeded about 700 acres of the park to be used for a scientific research center. Today, those deeded acres host the MD Anderson and UT Cancer Center. One of the hiking trails leads right past the cancer center!

Buescher is another beautiful CCC-built park. You can see the Civilian Conservation Corps handiwork in the entrance to the park, the buildings on the grounds, the park road, footbridges, curbs, steps, and much more. My absolute favorite area of the park was built by the CCC. It features stonework to make a small wall and stairs that lead to a bridge across a small gully. It is simply beautiful.

Our Experience

Our day started off cold and dreary, which is perfect for us. It is my favorite weather! The staff members we spoke to in the front office were incredibly nice and informed us that there was a trail out. They made sure to show us on the map as well. We had a great chat with them before heading out to the trails. The restrooms were well kept and in good working order when we arrived. Partway through the day, one of the restrooms was backing up, but other restrooms were available. As we parked by the CCC Crossover Trail, we were greeted by the most beautiful cardinal! He hopped around on our car and then down on the curb near us when we got out. The sound of birds singing was incredible! We hiked the two smallest trails in the park before our group of friends arrived. Once we were all together, we hiked the long trails.

These trails are definitely a single-file type trail. There were a few places where you could easily walk two abreast, but it was a single-file line for the most part. The park was fairly busy, as we had visited on a Saturday, but everyone we passed was polite, and we all shared the paths nicely.

The scenic overlooks are also beautiful. There is a decent amount of space to park at the one where the trailheads leave from. The other has a good-sized pull-off area on the side of the road.

The Trails

When it comes to trails, there’s really something for everyone here. The shortest trail is only .003 miles and leads to a huge cedar elm. There is a nice bench where you can sit and admire the former champion tree in all its glory.

The next shortest is the CCC Crossover Trail. This is an easy, one-way trail that leads down CCC-built stairs to a small bridge. It is such a scenic area and was definitely our favorite area of the park.

The Winding Woodland Trail is, again, very easy. Nothing is challenging about it at all. It is simply a gorgeous stroll through the woods. We really enjoyed this trail as it is nearly completely untouched by the wildfires that have plagued the area in the last decade. It was nice to walk through and see the forest as it should be.

The Pine Gulch Trail and Roosevelt’s Cutoff form a loop of sorts. We hiked both of these trails (except the tail end of the Pine Gulch Trail, which was closed) and really enjoyed them. A section of the Pine Gulch Trail is more challenging than the rest, but I wouldn’t classify it as hard. There are some steeper climbs, but it was all quite manageable. The evidence of past fires is present throughout these trails. Charred trees are everywhere, like huge burnt matchsticks stuck into the earth. While they are sad to see, the new pines coming in are beautiful. Give it time, and it will be glorious once again.

The only trail we didn’t hike was the Barred Owl Path.

Our Takeaway

Buescher State Park has made its way into our Top 3 out of all the parks we’ve seen so far. It joins Mission Tejas State Park and Palo Duro Canyon State Park. It may not seem as grand as the other two parks from the outside, but it has a quality that speaks to us. I can’t put my finger on it, but it pulled us in completely. We’re so glad that this park is close to home because we’ll be going back quite often. We highly recommend this park. Even if you don’t like to hike or perhaps aren’t able to hike, the drive is beautiful, and the scenic overlooks are worth a stop. We hope you get the chance to go!
Want to see the park in action? Check out our vlog episode for Buescher State Park!
Cheers,
Lydia and Billy