McKinney Falls State Park: Upper and Lower Falls (Blog Hike #1056)

Trails: Rock Shelter, Homestead, Picnic, and Onion Creek Trails
Hike Location: McKinney Falls State Park
Geographic Location: east side of Austin, TX (30.18338, -97.72627)
Length: 1.4 miles
Difficulty: 2/10 (Easy)
Date Hiked: February 2025
Overview: A semi-loop along Onion Creek passing Upper Falls, Lower Falls, and other points of interest.
Park Information: https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/mckinney-falls
Hike Route Map: https://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=980506
Photo Highlight:

Hike Video: (coming December 26)

Directions to the trailhead: On the south side of Austin, take I-35 to William Cannon Drive (exit 228).  Exit and go east on William Cannon Dr.  Take William Cannon Dr. east 3.4 miles to McKinney Falls Parkway and turn left on McKinney Falls Pkwy.  Drive McKinney Falls Pkwy. north 1.2 miles to the signed park entrance on the left.  Turn left to enter the park, pay the entrance fee, and follow signs for the upper falls parking area, which is just west of the Visitor Center.  Park here.

The hike: Established only in 1976, McKinney Falls State Park is a 744 acre green oasis on the rapidly developing east side of Austin.  The park is located at the confluence of Onion and Williamson Creeks, and those creeks provide the park's scenic core.  The park is named for Thomas McKinney, who owned and lived on a ranch here in the 1850's.  McKinney is most famous for his work supporting the Texas Army during the Texas Revolution against Mexico in 1835 and 1836.

            McKinney Falls State Park boasts 2 developed campgrounds totaling 81 sites, but the areas along the creeks remain the most popular areas due to their fishing and hiking.  The park offers 7 trails totaling over 10 miles, but I came here on a cold near-freezing afternoon in late February, which forced me to keep my hike short.  The short loop described here passes both of the park's major waterfalls in addition to some other scenic creekside areas, thus providing a short but thorough tour of this park's scenic core.

Upper Falls Trailhead

            From the parking lot west of the Visitor Center, start by heading for Upper Falls, which is reached by making a pair of left turns on the park's asphalt Onion Creek Trail.  After a short descent, you reach Upper Falls in only about 500 feet.  Upper Falls is less than 10 feet tall, but it occupies a rugged spot in an area with lots of bare rock.  With the right amount of water, Upper Falls is a scenic cascade with water falling in 3 strands into a large plunge pool.  After a thunderstorm Upper Falls would be a simple ledge waterfall, and during a drought it would dry up completely.

Upper Falls

            The Onion Creek Trail continues upstream along Onion Creek, but there are no more waterfalls or points of interest upstream.  Thus, I turned around, walked northeast around the Visitor Center, and picked up the Rock Shelter Trail as it follows Onion Creek downstream.  At 0.25 miles, you cross a long footbridge and pass Old Baldy, a massive 100-foot-tall bald cypress tree that was named Austin's Tree of the Year in 2012.  Old Baldy dates to over 500 years old.  Imagine the stories it could tell about how much this area has changed over time!

Old Baldy

            Past Old Baldy, the trail climbs over a bluff before angling left to descend under a cliff line that contains the large rock shelter for which this trail is named.  Experts think people have been using this limestone overhang as a shelter for 8000 years.  While I did not find anyone in the shelter, I did see a heron and some cardinals enjoying Onion Creek downhill to the left.

Rock shelter

Heron in Onion Creek

            After climbing around the end of the cliff line, you reach the north end of the Rock Shelter Trail just shy of 0.4 miles.  You could turn right here if you wanted a very short hike, but I turned left to head further downstream for Lower Falls.  You are now officially on the Homestead Trail, though no signs indicate such.  At 0.5 miles, you emerge on a large open slab of bare limestone rock.  The park map tells you that El Camino Real de Tejas, a primitive 2500 mile road that connected Mexico with Louisiana, used to run over this rock.

Limestone slab, formerly El Camino Real de Tejas

            At the north end of the rock, you reach Lower Falls.  Lower Falls looks much like Upper Falls except that 1) the water strands are more spread out and 2) a small beach below the falls gives the perfect angle for a photo.  If you want to extend this hike, the Homestead Trail crosses Onion Creek on stepping stones just above the falls, and in another 0.2 miles it reaches the ruins of the McKinney homestead.  I wanted to keep my hike short, so I turned around after viewing Lower Falls and headed back across the bare rock.

Lower Falls

            To add some variety to my return route, at the next trail intersection where the Rock Shelter Trail goes right, I angled left to begin the Picnic Trail.  True to its name, the Picnic Trail is a flat and wide dirt/gravel trail that heads through the park's main picnic area.  Some playgrounds and restroom buildings are also passed.  At 1.3 miles, you reach the Picnic Trail's south end at an intersection with the Onion Creek Trail.  Turn right on the Onion Creek Trail, and in only a few hundred feet you return to the Visitor Center parking lot to complete the hike.