Gorman Falls - Colorado Bend State Park

This hike took place on May 28th 2022

I left Amarillo on this Saturday morning after a nice overnight visit. My original intention was to stop at Caprock Canyons State Park, but alas it was too hot, and that would beeen an hour out of my way (on what was already a 7 hour drive). So instead I opted to stop at Colorado Bend State Park, which was actually on my route back towards Copperas Cove, and only about a 10-15 minute detour.

When I first arrived at the park, I naively thought I might just drive down the road and have a look at the river.

Had to get a few selfies

AllTrails - Gorman Falls and Gorman Springs

But if you check out the AllTrails map above, you'll discover as I did that it's actually about a 4 mile round trip hike to see anything. It was about 97 degrees at the time, but since I had my camera, a Camelbak and plenty of water, I decided that an evening hike made sense. So off I went. 

The trail started out flat, sunny and lined with cactus.

This could have been confusing if I didn't already have a reasonable idea of where I was going.

Eventually I came to a nice shady section of the trial.

As I walked along the trail I encountered quite a few people on their way back. (brief rant: why do so many people set out on a miles long hike in nearly 100 degree weather with one little tiny 12oz plastic bottle of water???) Most of these people were visibly overheated and expressed to me that the falls themelves really weren't worth the walk. So I had a decision to make when I came to the sign below ...

Which way should I go?

I chose to turn right and go towards Gorman Springs; and I'm glad I did. It was very pretty with some nice running water, as you'll see in the following pictures.

Not quite a waterfall, but nice!

relflections

Moss covered rocks

When I made my way back up the trail out of the springs, my watch said I still had plenty of time until sunset, there was lots of water in my pack, and I'd already come all this way; it didn't make any sense not to go back to that sign, take the other path and see the falls too.  So off I went ... 

Nice rock formations along the trail to Gorman Falls

This is also the first place I started seeing significant elevation changes.

When I finally got down to the falls ... which btw involved a kind of treacherous downhills stretch across some very slippery rocks (thankfully there was a rope railing to hold on to), I think I had to agree with the hikers I'd passed earlier; it was a little underwhelming. 

That being said, I got there at the perfect time for really good light, and was happy with a few of my pictures. Both the Pixel 6 smartphone (below) and Canon 80d versions (featured image at the top) of the image of the falls themself came out nice. 

Night light showing the little bit of running water, lush vegitation and limestone errosion along the cliff walls.

A nice explanation of how Gorman falls were formed.

Then it was time to climb back up across those slippery rocks and finally make my way back towards the parking lot. I'm almost positive this park is on my list of future returns; probably with my daughters next time.