Governor Greg Abbott rolled into Lampasas on Friday and dropped some big outdoor news: Texas is getting a new 3,000-plus-acre state park along the Colorado River just east of town. The site, officially dubbed Post Oak Ridge State Park, was announced at a small in-person gathering with Texas Parks and Wildlife staff and local sportsmen and is among the first parks to move forward using voter-approved Centennial Parks funding. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials say planning work and early surveys are already underway.
Abbott used the rollout to praise voters and lawmakers for approving the constitutional amendment that created the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund and cast Post Oak Ridge as a long-haul investment in Texas families. "It's important that every family in our state and every child in our state has access to more parks like this. This is a great day for the future of Texas and for the future of Texas generations," he said, according to the Office of the Texas Governor.
What's on the land
Texas Parks and Wildlife officials say the agency has acquired about 3,118 acres beginning in January 2025 to assemble Post Oak Ridge, a spread that blends working ranchland with Hill Country scenery. The property includes a prominent stand of post oaks, limestone bluffs, spring-fed creeks, and a stretch of Colorado River frontage. It also takes in historic Vann family properties and sections of Yancey Creek that TPWD biologists have already started studying as part of initial resource surveys, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
When people can visit
The park is still in the early planning stage, but the clock is already ticking. TPWD policy requires newly acquired parkland to open for limited public use within 18 months and for full public use within 48 months. Agency staff have public meetings on the books for mid-January and plan to gather community feedback as they draft a Public Use Plan that will guide how visitors get in, move around, and camp, per TPWD.
How the state paid for it
Post Oak Ridge is among the first projects drawing on the $1 billion Centennial Parks Conservation Fund that Texas voters approved in 2023 to snap up and protect more public land. The two ranches that will make up the park cost about $47.1 million in combined purchases, The Texas Tribune reports, part of a broader push to secure recreation space and habitat before it is lost to development.
Public meetings and local reaction
Locals who turned out for the Lampasas announcement said the new park should take some pressure off crowded nearby recreation spots and give area residents more room to hunt, hike, and camp without driving hours across the state. The Lampasas public meeting is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Lampasas County Annex, with an earlier Austin session also planned. Video of the event is available from FOX 7 Austin.
TPWD officials say public input from those meetings will help determine where trails go, what camping looks like, and how people get to the river, all while trying to protect the land and water that drew the state to the site in the first place. For now, Post Oak Ridge stands as a major new slice of Hill Country riverfront that Texas leaders hope will safeguard habitat and open up fresh outdoor options for Lampasas-area communities.
