Blue Hole Regional Park

The Blue Hole has been a gathering spot since long before it was a park. The Dobie family owned the land in the late 1800s and opened the swimming hole to the public in the 1920s, and for generations Hill Country families came here to picnic, camp, and cool off in the creek. It was the kind of place a whole town grew up around, one summer at a time, and it earned a lasting reputation as one of the best swimming holes in Texas.

The pool itself is the work of Cypress Creek, which runs cold and clear because it is fed by springs upstream. The huge bald cypress trees lining the bank are the signature of Hill Country creeks, water-loving giants whose knobby roots and feathery green needles frame the whole scene. In late fall they turn rusty orange before dropping their needles, so the same swimming hole looks like a different place in October than it does in July.

By 2001 the Blue Hole was in real danger. A developer had proposed building a lodge above the swimming hole and hundreds of single-family homes across the surrounding acreage, a plan that would have changed Wimberley and Cypress Creek forever. For a place that had been a shared, open swimming hole for eighty years, the prospect of being fenced off behind a private neighborhood was hard to accept.

So the town acted. In 2003 the city of Wimberley put together an agreement to acquire the tract along Cypress Creek for public parkland, and over the next couple of years it stitched together grants and a wave of local donations to complete the purchase. After years of planning and careful design, the City opened Blue Hole Regional Park in June of 2011, turning a threatened swimming hole into a protected public park that belongs to everyone.

The heart of it is the swim area, where the creek widens and deepens into the classic Blue Hole. You can wade in from the grassy edge, jump from the wooden docks, or climb up and launch off one of the rope swings into the deeper water, with ladders to help you climb back out. The cold spring water is a jolt at first and a relief a minute later, and the cypress shade keeps the whole stretch cool even in the thick of a Texas afternoon.

Away from the water the park keeps going. There are hiking and walking trails through the woods, sports courts, an amphitheater, and a large playground, all laid out with care so the natural creek corridor stays the star. Because the busy swim season runs on a reservation system in timed blocks, the swimming stays comfortable rather than shoulder to shoulder, and a morning or afternoon here is an easy, unhurried Hill Country day.

Blue Hole Regional Park is just outside downtown Wimberley, an easy drive southwest of Austin and northeast of San Antonio, deep in the Hill Country. In the swim season, roughly late spring through Labor Day and into September weekends, you need a reservation for the swim area, sold as half-day passes; the trails and grounds are open more broadly. Summer weekends fill fast, so book early and arrive with a plan.

Bring what you would to any swimming hole: water shoes for the rocky bottom, a towel, and shade for the lawn. Remember the water is spring-fed and cold, which is the whole point on a hot day, and that in a dry year low creek levels can limit or pause swimming, so a quick check of the park's status saves a wasted trip. Give yourself a few unhurried hours to swing, swim, and dry off in the cypress shade, the way people have been doing here for a hundred years.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.