Krause Springs

Krause Springs in Spicewood, Texas, is one of the Texas Hill Country's most beloved and most enduring swimming and camping destinations — a 115-acre property owned by the Krause family for over five decades in Burnet County, where 32 natural springs feed both a manmade swimming pool and the natural pools of Cypress Creek's spring-run in a camping environment that combines the 45-degree spring water's clarity and cold with the cypress shade, the Hill Country cedar landscape, and the swimming hole character that Texas families have been making the Spicewood pilgrimage to enjoy across multiple generations of family camping tradition. The Krause family's long stewardship of the property has preserved the springs' natural character against the development pressure that has transformed much of the Lake Travis corridor surrounding them. Camping sites alongside the natural swimming pools, the manmade pool, and the 115-acre property's varied terrain give guests the full Krause Springs experience — the ability to camp overnight at the springs and swim morning and evening in the cold spring water that the cypress-shaded pools and the Cypress Creek spring run maintain at a consistent temperature regardless of the Hill Country's summer heat represents the specific family camping tradition that the Krause property has sustained for decades. The spring-fed pools' 45-degree temperature gives the swimming a refreshing contrast to the 95-degree summer air that Hill Country camping in July and August consistently provides. Pets are welcome. The spring system's 32 individual springs feed into the natural pools and Cypress Creek in a landscape that the overhanging cypress canopy and the limestone karst topography of the Hill Country define — the spring's origin in the Edwards Plateau aquifer system that underlies the central Texas Hill Country gives it the consistent water quality, temperature, and flow rate that surface-water features cannot maintain during summer drought conditions. The natural pools' graduated depth, the travertine terracing of the spring ledges, and the specific visual clarity of the karst spring water give the Krause Springs experience the character that distinguishes natural spring swimming from reservoir or river swimming. Pedernales Falls State Park, 20 miles east of Krause Springs in Blanco County, extends the day-trip range from the Spicewood spring campsite into the Pedernales River's limestone waterfall staircase and swimming holes that sustain another signature Hill Country water recreation experience. The park's Pedernales Falls overlook trail and the river access below the falls give visitors the full Hill Country river character that the spring swimming of Krause Springs complements with a different hydrology and a different scale of river landscape. Lake Travis, immediately east of Spicewood, provides the large-reservoir boating and water sports that the private and commercial marina infrastructure along the lake's north shore sustains for the Austin leisure market. Krause Springs serves guests from spring through fall in Burnet County's temperate Hill Country climate, with the summer swimming season from Memorial Day through Labor Day representing the most concentrated family camping demand from the Austin and San Antonio regional markets that have used the springs as a traditional summer cooling destination for generations. The spring's consistent water temperature makes it specifically rewarding in the hottest weeks of July and August when the 45-degree pool water provides the most dramatically refreshing contrast to the surrounding air temperature — a natural refrigeration that Austin-area families specifically plan the Spicewood trip around. Reserve camping spaces well ahead for summer weekends, when the Krause Springs camping availability fills from the Austin area family market that has made the property a multi-generational Hill Country summer tradition.