Sometimes a waterfall comes along that blows my mind. Usually those same waterfalls don’t translate well to photos and there’s no substitute for just seeing them. Gorman Falls at Colorado Bend State Park in Texas is absolutely one of those. Gorman Falls is 70 feet tall according to a sign on location. That’s great, but what that sign can’t even relate is that this isn’t just a fall made of a single veil of water dropping down. Instead an entire cliff rains down water at various volumes and heights, wrapping around a corner out of site in one direction and stretching past where the state park will let you explore in another. I had no idea where to focus my eyes, but the whole thing was mind blowing. Felt like the background for a scene in a fantasy movie. It isn’t even just the water falling, but the pools below, and even what appear to be stalactites forming in some of the limestone hollows that get a slow perpetual drip. Look at these pictures below, they are just from three sample chunks of Gorman Falls as a whole. And they don’t do it justice at all. At all.
When I arrived the lady working the guard station warned me that this would be a strenuous hike and that a cable trail was involved. When I hit the trail itself there were warning signs about bringing supplies and asking if I was ready for this. Maybe I’m jaded, but this was a 1.4 mile hike in and 1.4 mile hike back out, felt easy, the “cable trail” was really more of a guard rail and just a tiny little bit at the end, and it was wonderfully full of quiet solitude out there. I find when I go to different places, across different states, with different people providing opinions, that you just can’t trust a trail’s rating. But for me, easy. Here’s a handy trail map, and even though I’m not throwing a bunch of photos of the Gorman Falls Trail up here, the trailhead is near the front of the park and the scenery was top notch. Given more time I’d have probably tackled a bunch of the random trails in this park, because it is so pretty and relaxing.
On a more random level of note making, this Texas State Park is very isolated. To get to it you even have to drive through an open range cattle ranch, meaning your car is hanging out with the cows. The Colorado River here is TEXAS’s Colorado River, not the more famous one, but it’s still awesome. The campsites I looked at were on grass and along the river, and I’d happily stay there sometime in the future to explore all the trails. The other important thing to know is that this park is laid out along one long road that goes on for miles, so even when you get there if you’re not going to a trail in the front, you might still have a good drive to get to the park office, some of the trailheads, river and campsites. Worth it.
