Drink your way down 290
Craft distilleries, breweries, cideries, and tasting rooms line the highway and the ranch roads off it. Most have big lawns, food trucks, and live music on weekends — and most are ten minutes apart.
Hays County
Dripping Springs
Thirty minutes from Austin, and already dark enough at night to see the Milky Way — plus the densest run of distilleries, breweries, and barbecue in the region.
The place
Dripping Springs calls itself the Gateway to the Hill Country and has a fair claim: US‑290 west of Austin hits the first real hills here, and the tasting rooms, breweries, distilleries, and destination barbecue joints start stacking up along it.
In 2014 it became the first International Dark Sky Community in Texas — sixth in the world — by rewriting its outdoor lighting rules, and it has defended that status ever since as Austin sprawls west. The Texas Night Sky Festival each spring is the celebration of it. Hamilton Pool, Reimers Ranch, and Pedernales Falls are all a short drive out.
Don't miss
- First International Dark Sky Community in Texas
- Distilleries, breweries & Hill Country barbecue
- Gateway to Hamilton Pool and Reimers Ranch
- Texas Night Sky Festival each spring
Things to do
How to spend your time
Eat barbecue in the oaks
The Driftwood and Dripping Springs smokehouses are a genuine Austin weekend pilgrimage. Go at 11 a.m. on a weekday if you would rather not stand in line for two hours.
Look up
The point of a Dark Sky Community is that you do not have to drive anywhere. Get off the main road, let your eyes adjust for twenty minutes, and the Milky Way is right there.
Head for the water
Hamilton Pool Preserve and Milton Reimers Ranch Park are both 20–30 minutes west; Pedernales Falls is 30 minutes northwest. All three want you to check status before you drive out.
Plan it properly
Official sources for Dripping Springs
Hours, fees, and closures change. These are the people who set them.
- Destination Dripping Springs
The visitors bureau — distillery trail, lodging, and event calendar.
- Night Sky initiative
The dark-sky ordinance and how to light a property responsibly.
- Hamilton Pool Preserve
Reservations required daily.
Pair it with
Experiences here
Trips through here
Ready-made itineraries
4 days · Road trip The Swimming Holes Loop
Chase the cold, clear water from Blue Hole to Hamilton Pool to a lazy tube down the Guadalupe. Pack a towel and a reservation.
- Blue Hole, Wimberley
- Hamilton Pool
- Guadalupe River
- Comal River
2 days · New moon A Dark Sky Weekend
Time it to a new moon: bats out of a railroad tunnel at dusk on Friday, the Milky Way over pink granite on Saturday.
- Dripping Springs
- Old Tunnel State Park
- Fredericksburg
- Enchanted Rock
Nearby
More destinations close by
Hamilton Pool & the Pedernales
30.342°N 98.126°WTravis County
A collapsed grotto where a 50-foot waterfall spills into a jade-green pool. Reserve ahead — this is the most-photographed swimming hole in Texas.
Wimberley
29.997°N 98.099°WHays County
An arts town built around water — Jacob’s Well, Blue Hole, and the Cypress Creek. Market days, galleries, and the bluest swimming in Texas.
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