Last Updated: May 2026
The Frio River — frio meaning cold in Spanish — is spring-fed from the karst limestone aquifers of the Edwards Plateau, and it earns the name. The water runs crystal clear and consistently cool regardless of season, and it carves through a landscape of live oaks, cedar, and limestone bluffs that is quintessentially Texas Hill Country. In summer the Frio is one of the most popular tubing and kayaking rivers in Texas; we arrived in late November to find the off-season in full effect — ropes swings hanging still, rental outfitters shuttered, roads nearly empty. It was exactly the right amount of quiet.
