Apparently the locals call it “Pert’nales” and I was immediately confused… but when in Rome do as the Romans, right?

There were huge rock formations that you could jump across or climb down and explore depending on how deep the water was at the falls. It had rained a few days before out visit so the water was rushing quite a bit more than usual.

We found this deep pocket of water in the rock at the end of the limestone area and there was a Gar and several large Bass swimming around. We kept trying to catch it with our bare hands and I grabbed it once! Darn slippery fish got away… next time I’ll have to bring out my Oklahoma Noodling technique I watched on youtube…

Swimming wasn’t allowed down at the falls and it was super hot so we recommend bringing lots of water while hiking down to it.

That Texas heat don’t play!

We finally found the designated swimming area and hiked down a long path of stone stairs before finding the sandy riverbank.

The current was pretty strong in the area that we swam at and we were glad to have brought our tubes so that the kids could just float down and then hike back up and do it again. I bet during a time with less rain it would be perfect to swim without feeling like you could get swept downstream.