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Cypress Creek, Swimming Holes & the Arts

Wimberley, Texas

Lodging · Swimming Holes · The Square · Local Guide
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About Wimberley

Wimberley, Texas — Cypress Creek, Swimming Holes & the Arts

Wimberley sits in the Blanco River Valley, where Cypress Creek meets the Blanco about 45 minutes southwest of Austin. It's a small town — fewer than 4,000 residents — but it draws hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, and the reason is the water: cold, clear, spring-fed, and the best swimming in the Hill Country. The other half of Wimberley is the arts — a community of artists, glassblowers, and musicians who settled here decades ago and built something lasting. Add a downtown Square of independent shops and genuinely good restaurants, and you get a town that's harder to reduce to one thing than most — which is the point.

Settled
1850sfounded as a gristmill settlement on Cypress Creek
County
Hays CountyBlanco River Valley
Population
~4,000draws hundreds of thousands of visitors a year
Known for
Spring-fed swimmingJacob's Well · Blue Hole · the arts · Market Days
Nearby
Old Baldy · Devil's BackboneCanyon Lake · the Blanco River
From Austin
~35 miles SWabout 45 minutes on RR 12
Live Conditions
The Blanco River, and the spring that feeds Cypress Creek
Blanco River at Wimberley
USGS 08171000 · Full chart →
cfs · flow
ft · gauge ht.
Fetching live readings from USGS…
Jacob's Well Spring
Headwaters of Cypress Creek · USGS 08170990 · Full chart →
cfs · spring flow
°F · water temp
Fetching live readings from USGS…
Updated — Source: USGS Water Services
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About Us

Built by a locally operated Hill Country travel company.

wimberley.ai is built by Spencer and Jess Forrest, owners of Backroads Hill Country — a locally operated Texas Hill Country travel company that has represented Hill Country vacation rentals since 2001, with thousands of guest stays coordinated across the region.

Most travel platforms flatten a place like Wimberley into generic top-10 lists. This is built the other way around — local knowledge first, from people who actually live and work in the Hill Country.

Spencer & Jess Forrest Backroads Hill Country
The Network

Part of HillCountry.ai

The Digital Front Door to the Texas Hill Country. An AI-powered discovery network connecting towns, rivers, parks, events, and the places worth knowing across the region.

The HillCountry.ai network across the Texas Hill Country A network spanning towns, parks, attractions, rivers, events and activities across the Texas Hill Country, with a central hub connected to named town sites. hillcountry.ai THE NETWORK HUB Bandera Fredericksburg Kerrville Boerne Concan Wimberley Llano Marble Falls Leakey Gruene Camp Wood Dripping Springs Luckenbach THE HILLCOUNTRY.AI NETWORK One AI discovery layer for every place worth knowing in the Texas Hill Country 100+ AI domains — towns, parks, attractions, rivers, events & activities
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Local Knowledge

Frequently asked about Wimberley

Easily. The swimming alone — Jacob's Well and Blue Hole — fills a day, the Square and its restaurants fill an evening, and the arts (Wimberley Glassworks, the galleries, the EmilyAnn Theatre) fill another half day. If your visit lands on the first Saturday of the month, Market Days is a half day on its own.
Jacob's Well is the wild one — an artesian spring rising through a limestone shaft, startling blue-green, holding around 68°F year-round, with the second-longest submerged cave system in Texas. Blue Hole Regional Park is the accessible one — a wide, calm, family-friendly swimming stretch of Cypress Creek under old-growth cypress, plus 3.5 miles of trails. Most people who've done both say Wimberley has the best swimming in the Hill Country. Both require reservations in swimming season.
Yes, in season. Swimming at Jacob's Well is by reservation through Hays County Parks, and spots fill fast from May through Labor Day. Blue Hole also requires reservations during swimming season. Book ahead — walking up on a summer weekend without one usually means you're not getting in.
The first Saturday of each month, March through December, 7am to 4pm. It's the second-largest outdoor market in Texas — around 475–490 vendor booths across 20 oak-shaded acres, running since 1964. Antiques, art, jewelry, plants, food, live music. Arrive early for parking and the best selection. January and February are the only months without it.
A nationally recognized hand-blown glass studio and gallery founded by Tim de Jong, with live glassblowing demonstrations Thursday through Sunday, 10am to 3pm. Watching it done is more compelling than it sounds — worth an hour. The gallery sells everything from affordable ornaments to serious collector pieces.
The Leaning Pear is the most-cited — farm-to-table and consistently excellent. Community Pizza & Beer Garden for wood-fired pies (the deviled eggs are a local thing). CreekHouse Kitchen & Bar sits creekside under the cypress and is the spot for live music and a cold drink. Dos Olivos for Mediterranean, Social on the Square for wine, Mima's Tacos for breakfast.
About 35 miles southwest of Austin (~45 minutes via RR 12) and 65 miles north of San Antonio (~1 hour via I-35 and RR 12). There's no public transit — you'll need a car. Ranch Road 12 is the main corridor and connects Wimberley to Blanco to the west, San Marcos to the east, and the Guadalupe corridor to the south.
Old Baldy — 218 rock-cut stairs to a 360-degree view of the valley, under a mile round trip, best at golden hour. The Devil's Backbone (Ranch Road 32) is one of the best scenic drives in Central Texas, with the Devil's Backbone Tavern — said to be the oldest continuously operating dance hall in Texas — at the western end. Add the boot statue trail (53 artist-designed boots across the valley) and Pioneer Town at the 7A Ranch.
Backroads Hill Country manages vacation rentals in the Wimberley area. Use the lodging page on this site to see what's open for your dates, or just ask me and I'll point you to what fits your group.
Spring and fall are the peak seasons — mild weather, wildflowers in spring, real color along the creek bottoms in fall. Summer is hot but the swimming holes make it worth it (weekdays are quieter). Winter is underrated — the town's fully open, the restaurants are less packed, and the December light is exceptional. Market Days runs March through December.