Lost Maples State Natural Area
VanderpoolThe main event. TPWD posts a weekly foliage report from mid-October — read it, then go on a Tuesday.
Experience
Fall Color & Autumn Drives
Texas is not supposed to have a fall. The Hill Country has one anyway — late, brief, and worth planning a weekend around.
The lay of the land
The star is the Uvalde bigtooth maple, a relict species stranded in the cool canyons of the Sabinal River when the climate warmed after the last ice age. In a good year they go scarlet and orange in a way no one expects of Texas, and Lost Maples State Natural Area is where you go to see it.
The maples get the attention, but the whole region turns: bald cypress along the Guadalupe, Frio, and Blanco go rust-red, Spanish oak and flameleaf sumac light up the roadcuts, and the light gets low and gold by four in the afternoon. Peak usually lands somewhere between late October and late November, and it moves every year.
Where to go
Featured spots
Garner State Park
Concan, on the FrioCypress color along the Frio and a canyon rim trail, 45 minutes south of Lost Maples.
The Guadalupe above Kerrville
Kerr CountyBald cypress turning along TX‑39 toward Hunt and Ingram — a slow, beautiful river drive.
Pedernales Falls
near Johnson CityCypress and Spanish oak over the limestone slabs, and far fewer people than Lost Maples.
Colorado Bend
north of LlanoGorman Falls and a mossy spring canyon that stays green while everything else turns.
Know before you go
A few good tips
- Read the TPWD foliage report before you commit — a dry September or a warm October pushes peak by weeks.
- Reserve a Lost Maples day pass as far ahead as you can; November weekends sell out and the park fills by 9 a.m.
- Go midweek if you possibly can. The difference is night and day.
- Fill the tank in Bandera, Utopia, or Kerrville — there is nothing out on RR 187.
- Pack layers. Canyon mornings in November are genuinely cold and the afternoons are not.
Plan it properly
Book it with the source
Hours, fees, and closures change. These are the people who set them.
- Lost Maples foliage reports
Weekly color updates from park staff, mid-October onward.
- Lost Maples day passes
Reserve before you drive — the park closes when it fills.
- Garner State Park
The Frio River park, 45 minutes south.
- Kerrville CVB
The nearest real town for lodging and dinner.
Where to base
Destinations for this
Lost Maples & the Sabinal Canyon
29.816°N 99.570°WBandera & Real Counties
A relict stand of bigtooth maples in a steep canyon on the Sabinal River — and the best fall color in Texas, for about three weeks a year.
Kerrville & the Upper Guadalupe
30.047°N 99.140°WKerr County
The river town at the top of the Guadalupe — a mile-long riverside park, a Western art museum, and a community rebuilding after two hard summers.
Johnson City & the LBJ Ranch
30.277°N 98.412°WBlanco County
Boyhood home of a president and the Texas White House. In December the whole town lights up; in spring the roadsides run blue with wildflowers.
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