Enchanted Rock crowds

[RichardM]

Anybody care to take a guess as to how crowded E-Rock will be on March 21? My daughter and I will be in Austin and my mother suggested we do a day trip to E-Rock, since my nephew and his fianc? will be in town and she's never been before. Great for me, as Justin will get to carry Jennifer around on his shoulders instead of me.

Naturally, our plan would be to leave Austin as early as possible in the morning, but the definition of "ASAP" is quite variable when participants are under 5 or in college. The website says it often closes once parking capacity is full, "sometimes as early as 11:00AM". Seeing as how this is a Spring Break weekend, I'll be surprised if it isn't closed by then. Should be interesting.

[oldfatman]

Sure will take a guess Richard.  I am in Fburg and have been going over to Erock lately.  I asked a couple of rangers about how crowded they expect to be.  The answer is "over run" through Sunday noon for all of the spring break week next week expecially the week ends..

[RichardM]

Hmmmm, we'll probably call the park just before we go past Pedernales Falls and bail out there if it's already closed or close to it.

[oldfatman]

From the size of the weekday crowds I saw, that would be an excellent idea. A couple of miles east from Fburg on 290 is Wildseed Farms storefront.  I get a kick out of going there to tourist around.  Since I do not have a house it is a cheap place for me.  The huge over eight feet long wind chimes there are special to me since I used to collect wind chimes and sun catchers in my previous life.  Their rest rooms are clean too. Have fun.

[jim2]

p. falls would be my choice .by the time you get to e. rock they will be full. at p. falls there is more room for folks to spread out.

[SA Bill]

I arrived at ER at 10:30am last Saturday and had to wait in a line of 12-14 cars just to get into the park. There were so many people scrambling up and down ER they looked like ants on an ant pile!  Interestingly, there were lots of people there with their dogs. To get somewhat away from the madding crowd, I headed out to Moss Lake ASAP and hung out there, which was very nice.
  Bill

[RichardM]

Well, this would primarily be an outing for my daughter so as long as we get into the park she'll probably be ok with crowds. If we want to wait for good weather and no crowds I'll need a lot more vacation time! We'll see what happens...

[Fred]

Different people have differing levels of acceptance of crowds.  I stopped camping at ER many years ago due to the crowds.  You can hike a short distance and camp primitive.   Sometimes the Austin crowd out there can get pretty rowdy at night.  It was a sort of party spot at one time.

[PyramidBlaster]

Any idea what it'll be like the weekend of April 5th? I think Spring break is more or less over by then...And I'm trying to get some footage out there...

[RichardM]

Well, my folks will be headed to my great aunt's funeral (she lived to 94) tomorrow, so I'm not sure if we'll be going to E-Rock after all. Kind of depends on what my nephew and his fianc? plan on doing....

[TheWildWestGuy]

I would probably cross ERock off the list and do something closer to Austin like McKinney Falls or one of the nature trails.  I suspect that their will be an hours-long waiting line to get into the park.   At one time the park service was going to buy some land across the street from the entrance and make a large overflow lot but the locals objected to it because it would make the area too crowded (they thought).  Well guess what folks, it's still crowded but now cars back-up onto the roadway and create a dangerous and very unpleasent experience for everyone involved.  It probably makes congestion worse because people spend more time waiting that they could be spending in the park and the cycle-time increases.   TWWG