Friends Group Home Page

The Friends of Colorado Bend State Park is a non-profit group that supports the park and it's staff through volunteer efforts and donation funds. Here you can learn more about the park and how we support it. You can also check out news, upcoming events, and ongoing projects

The holiday season is upon us and as the pace at home begins to pick up you may find it is a great time to escape to the wilderness. Here at the park things are beginning to slow down and you can get away from everything. The mornings may be a little chilly but the warming sun will greet you as it creeps over the ridge tops to light up the canyon floor. This time of year brings perfect temperatures for exploring the trails and getting a good cool weather hill country fix. The leaves are falling, the wildlife is frisky, and the campfire is nice and warm. Come on out!

Public hunts at Colorado Bend are important to managing the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and exotic animals populations. Contact Kevin at the park for more information. 325-628-3240

Winter time is also a time when we switch to project mode. The trail project is in full swing about to punch through to bring us up to 30 miles of awesome hill country trails. Remember when you come out that the paper maps have the most up to date trails and connections, the trailhead kiosk maps are great for reference but they do not have all the current routes.

Park staff is also hard at work on the Campground Project where they are clearing out brush, removing hazard trees killed by the drought, rebuilding the pathways from the upper river terrace down to the lower river bank tent sites, fixing some erosion problems, and... opening some new campsites in the drive up area!!! Some areas or sites may be blocked of temporarily as they move throughout the campground, please bear with them, the changes will be great.

We have a wide variety service projects and ways to volunteer. Some current projects:

Call the park for information, 325-628-3240 or email Kevin at kmferguss@gmail.com.

Gorman Cave closed by TPWD Executive Order Number 10-005.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department closed Gorman Cave to public access on July 29th, 2010 in accordance with the Department's White Nose Syndrome Action Plan. Walking cave tours of Gorman Cave have been discontinued. The closure was initiated to protect the habitat of a large colony of cave myotis bats (Myotis velifer) in response to the threat of White Nose Syndrome reaching Texas.

White Nose Syndrome affects hibernating bat species and so far is associated with the death of over one million bats. White Nose Syndrome was first discovered in New York State in 2006 and is spreading throughout the U.S. at an alarming rate; it has now been detected in western Oklahoma in cave myotis. There is so much about this wildlife crisis that is still unknown. In an attempt to protect the bats from accidental introduction of the pathogen by humans and to decrease disturbance to the colony TPWD is closing Gorman Cave and closely monitoring the bat population.

Still interested in Caving?

Do you want to explore a wild cave? We invite you to participate in one of our weekly guided crawling tours of other caves in the park that do not support sensitive bat colonies, call for details and reservations.