LCRA Park: Lake Bastrop South Shore Park

The LCRA parks are a great alternative to state parks. They offer a lot of the same amenities, but these are almost always close to water. At Mckinney Roughs, for example, you get to hike right alongside the Colorado River; and at Bastrop South Shore you get to see Lake Bastrop.

The lake offers kayaks and canoe rentals, but there is a boat dock as well. This place is very popular for fishing, and on my last visit, the banks were filled with anglers of all ages.

Bastrop South Shore also has a mini-golf course, a playground, and a group pavilion. If you don’t want to fish but enjoy the water, a section is designated for swimming. My daughter was standing in the water to cool off after hiking, and it looked suitable to wade, or splash around.

Bastrop South Shore is actually one of three main sections of the main LCRA park. There are Lake Bastrop Lands and North Shore Park as well. Paid entry gives you access to the south and north parts of the park if you want to go exploring a bit.

HIKING

There are nine trails here with a combined mileage total of 9.2 miles. So not a huge hiking park, but because you’re in Bastrop there are plenty of pine trees to enjoy along the way. Unlike Bastrop State Park, this park wasn’t as affected by the fires from 2011.

The longest trail here is actually a trailway between the north and south parks, so one-way is 3.5 miles. The shortest trail is the Fisherman’s trail at .4 miles.

On my last visit, my family and I decided to connect a few together, so we took the Swift Trail (1.4 mi.) to the Gideon Loop (.9 mi.).

LCRA PARKS DIRECTORY

We were going to add in the Loblolly (.5 mi.) and Loblolly Loop (.5 mi.), but we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon fishing.

This trail combo definitely offered some great views of the pines, and on the loop, you could see the lake at various lake-view resting stops, and through the trees. This park is very scenic as you can see in the posted video.

I definitely want to knock out the North-South trailway because of the scenery here, and seven miles total isn’t that strenuous as there are minimal elevation changes here.

CAMPING

While driving around to scope potential camping areas I didn’t notice many tents. What I did notice were the super cute cabins that are available here. There are two cabin sections: The Osprey Point Cabins and the Waterfront cabins. They’re about $65/night and $75/night if you want to bring your pet. Each cabin sleeps up to five, and they include electricity, an outside water spigot, heat and A/C, ceiling fans, and a grill.

The other campsites are primarily for RV campers, but there are a couple of tent sites available in the Lewis Point Camping loop. This loop features full RV hookups and water/electric sites. Full hookup is $45 and the other options are $35.

OVERALL

With the water, water activities, and cabins, I really think Bastrop South Shore is a great option for some family fun. I probably wouldn’t camp here solo because of the lack of tent camping, but there is definitely a little bit of something for everyone for a small group of people. If you’ve been here let me know what you think in the comments below!