Colorado Bend State Park

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The boat ramp is closed due to low water.

With rugged tent camping, cave crawling tours and the thunderous 60-foot Gorman Falls, your pulse is sure to spend a lot of time racing.

Things to Do

The park currently offers the outdoor enthusiast access to primitive camping, hiking, mountain biking, fishing, swimming, paddling, birding and wildlife viewing, as well as guided tours of caves and waterfalls. The park has 26 miles of multiuse trails (hiking and mountain biking) and 4 miles of trail designated as hiking only. When river levels are normal (call for current conditions), paddlers can travel upstream as well as down to explore or access the park by river. When Lake Buchanan is near normal levels, the river is navigable from the park's boat ramp all the way to the lake, approximately 10 miles. Traveling through the beautiful canyon lands of the Colorado, the river is slow-moving in this area; hazards include frequent low water levels and seasonal flood debris.

Equipment Rentals

The park rents single and double sit-on-top kayaks and offers a 10 percent discount to Texas State Park Pass holders.

Ranger Programs

CBSP cave crawl photo There is a guided tour to Gorman Falls on Saturdays at 2 p.m. The tour lasts about two hours and includes a 1.5-mile round-trip hike. Reservations are not taken for this tour. Gorman Falls is also accessible without a guided tour. There are two trails for day-use hiking over rugged terrain (3 miles and 5 miles round-trip).

Crawling Cave Tours: Explore what lies beneath the canyon lands of Colorado Bend. An experienced guide will lead you on a speleo-adventure through caves where you crawl, slide, and climb through small spaces and into large chambers. Be prepared to get dirty and maybe even soaked.

Due to various hazards in the caves such as low oxygen levels and poisonous gases and the fact that caves are non-renewable natural resources, all caves in the park are closed except by guided tour or special permit. Reservations are highly recommended for the cave tours due to the limited number of people which can be taken on any given tour. Contact the park (325/628-3240) to make reservations and check questionable weather conditions. Substantial footwear is recommended for all tours. No pets allowed on tours. Check the Calendar for tour fees.

Gorman Falls Tours - 2 p.m. Saturday (weather permitting).
Crawling Cave Tours - 1 p.m. Saturday (resource and weather permitting)

Gorman Cave closed by TPWD Executive Order Number 10-005.
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department closed Gorman Cave to public access on July 29th, 2010 in accordance with the Department's White Nose Syndrome Action Plan. Walking cave tours of Gorman Cave have been discontinued. The closure was initiated to protect the habitat of a large colony of cave myotis bats (Myotis velifer) in response to the threat of White Nose Syndrome reaching Texas.

White Nose Syndrome affects hibernating bat species and so far is associated with the death of over one million bats. White Nose Syndrome was first discovered in New York State in 2006 and is spreading throughout the U.S. at an alarming rate; it has now been detected in western Oklahoma in cave myotis. There is so much about this wildlife crisis that is still unknown. In an attempt to protect the bats from accidental introduction of the pathogen by humans and to decrease disturbance to the colony TPWD is closing Gorman Cave and closely monitoring the bat population.

Still interested in Caving? Do you want to explore a wild cave? We invite you to participate in one of our weekly guided crawling tours (listed above) of other caves in the park that do not support sensitive bat colonies, call for details and reservations.