Don’t pack the tent or backpack just yet, but Texas park lovers could get 7,637 acres of additional parkland to roam in the coming years. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission will consider four land acquisitions to create new or expand existing parks at its meeting on Thursday. If the acquisitions are approved, parks officials will continue negotiating potential deals.
The parcels include 823 acres adjacent to Government Canyon State Natural Area, in northwest San Antonio, and an eye-popping 3,073 acres abutting Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, north of Fredericksburg, which would be used to expand those parks. The Enchanted Rock acquisition would more than triple the size of the state natural area. Two other tracts—1,721 acres in Uvalde County and 2,020 acres across the river from Colorado Bend State Park, near San Saba—would likely be used to create new stand-alone parks, says Texas State Parks director Rodney Franklin. “These are not over the finish line just yet, but depending on how negotiations go, we’re very hopeful these will progress—and there’s a high likelihood they will,” Franklin says. “We thought these properties were special enough to move forward.”
Money to fund the land purchases would come mainly from the state’s sporting goods sales tax and other sources, such as TPWD’s operating budget—not the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund, which allotted last year $1 billion to create and expand state parks. News about how those funds will be spent is expected starting next year.
The potential for more parks is big news in fast-growing Texas, where more than 96 percent of land is privately owned, and development has gobbled up two million acres during the last two decades.
“Texas ranks thirty-fifth in the nation for state parks acres per capita, and that insufficient supply has run up against enormous demand for state parks,” says Luke Metzger, executive director of the nonprofit Environment Texas. Metzger is also an avid park user who has visited 55 of the existing 89 state parks. “Many people, particularly at places like Enchanted Rock, have been turned away when parks hit capacity, or they have to book many months ahead of time to get in,” he says. “It’s clear we need far more state parks to meet demand for recreation and to preserve land.”
The acquisitions would do both, Franklin says. “I think everybody has realized that being outside and connecting to nature is important for health, social, and economic reasons.”
At Government Canyon State Natural Area, a 12,000-acre span of canyons and brushland in northwest San Antonio, visitors can already hike, check out tracks stamped into the mud by dinosaurs millions of years ago, or go primitive camping.
The proposed 823-acre addition would give them more terrain to explore. “And it’s above the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, so protection of it is critical,” Franklin says.
Because Government Canyon is a state natural area and not a state park, the focus would be on protecting natural resources instead of recreation, but birding, hiking, and primitive camping remain part of the calculus, Franklin says. The new parcel includes a meandering creek.
In September Texas Parks and Wildlife announced the acquisition of 630 acres of land adjacent to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, north of Fredericksburg. Just two months later, officials are looking at tacking on an even bigger addition to the Hill Country park, where a huge pink granite dome rises from the landscape. If the proposed 3,073-acre acquisition goes through, the park would ultimately more than triple in size from the 1,644 acres that are now open to the public.
“Both these properties [the 630 acres and the 3,073 acres, both of which front Ranch Road 965] will do a good job of protecting the view of the rock itself,” Franklin says. “As you come down that hill [from Fredericksburg], you want the first thing you notice to be the rock and not a bunch of development.”
The expansion will likely include more trails and some primitive camping. “It gives us the opportunity to give people a little more elbow room,” Franklin says. “It doesn’t mean all the lines will suddenly disappear because it’s a very special place, but it will allow us to expand how many people are able to use that property.”
Some sections of the expansion could open in a few years. “It takes us a while to really access the property itself and see where we can build, where water and utilities would go, and where we’d put roads,” Franklin says. “We have to spend some time on planning and design, then it could be eighteen-to-twenty-plus months of construction.”
But with a “bolt-on” addition like this one, where staff is already in the area, things could happen more quickly than at a start-from-scratch park. “We’re exploring all the options, which will allow us to take advantage of public access as soon as we can,” Franklin says.
Farther south, officials are looking at a 1,721-acre tract not far from the ever-popular Garner State Park in Uvalde County, where generations of Texans have jumped into the Frio River and learned to two-step on an outdoor pavilion. The property isn’t adjacent to Garner, but it’s very close and would probably operate as a stand-alone park, Franklin says. And while Garner features RV sites, electric hookups, cabins, and a mini-golf course, the new park likely would be less developed.
“The views are going to be really nice if we’re able to close on that property,” Franklin says. “The topography is special; there are excellent views and pieces of the Frio River. That’s all going to be a draw.”
But don’t expect a duplicate of what Garner already offers. “Everything is on the table, but we’re going to take into account what we offer at Garner and try to complement that as opposed to replicating it. It most certainly will not have three hundred RV sites, although it could have some. It could be more of a natural experience.”
The last acquisition, a 2,020-acre chunk opposite the river from lightly developed Colorado Bend State Park, might get a little more development than its neighbor, a former fishing camp where visitors admire Gorman Falls, go tent camping, or crawl into one of the many small caves. “We’ll probably complement what we do or don’t have at Colorado Bend and use the property to offer a variety of experiences,” Franklin says.
Assuming no other hiccups arise, commission approval on Thursday will mean that Texas Parks and Wildlife officials can keep negotiating toward a contract to purchase the land. That doesn’t mean you can book a campsite now. “I know people want parks right now, and we want people to enjoy them as soon as possible, but the process takes time,” Franklin says.
In the meantime, we’ve got other park openings to look forward to. The Dan A. Hughes Unit of Devils River State Natural Area should open to the public first, possibly before the end of the year. The parcel, linked by the river to the already open Del Norte Unit farther upstream, will include a visitors center, primitive camping, and trails, as well as a former ranch house available for meetings and events.
And if all goes smoothly, visitors will start passing through the gates at the new Albert and Bessie Kronkosky State Natural Area, a 3,814-acre ranch near Pipe Creek that was donated to the state in 2011, by late 2026. The park, home to endangered golden-cheeked warblers and bigtooth maples, will offer camping, hiking, and cabins.
Construction at Palo Pinto Mountains State Park, located eighty miles west of Fort Worth, is ongoing, but a soft opening of the 4,871-acre park will likely take place in mid-2025, Franklin says.
Down on the coast, the opening of Powderhorn Ranch State Park, on Matagorda Bay, is farther off. Officials recently wrapped up public input sessions and will now focus on design. Expect the park, which lies along the migration pathway for numerous birds, to open closer to 2030.
Beyond those planned openings, park officials are busy scouting sites for other potential parks to purchase with money from the $1 billion Centennial Parks Fund. More than eighty suggestions have come in so far from government officials, conservation partners, and private citizens, Franklin says.
“Not all of them would make great state parks,” he says, noting that officials consider location, size, and interesting geographic or historic features as they pinpoint locations. “We put them through a desktop review to see what access and topography are like, and to check for oil and mineral rights. It all helps us move things forward or eliminate them.”
