Potwisha Day Use Area

Potwisha Day Use Area

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

Generals Highway, across from Potwisha Campground

Amenities

6 listed

Beach/Water Access, Parking - Auto, Restroom, Sewage Dump Station - Boat/RV, Toilet - Vault/Composting, Trash/Litter Receptacles

This day use area features river access, as well as overflow parking for Potwisha Campground, Potwisha Amphitheater guests, and additional parking for Marble Falls hikers. A recreational vehicle dump station is located adjacent to the overflow parking and day use area.

If you visit the river, be aware that drowning is the leading cause of deaths in our parks. Slips from polished marble boulders are common, currents are swift, and the water is especially cold in spring and early summer.

The KNP Complex Fire: What factors affect fire behavior? 

On the other side of the highway, you can see distant ridgelines. Some are blackened or ashen, others have browned trees. The 2021 KNP Complex Fire burned here at varying intensities based on numerous factors. 

Fire behavior, or how a fire burns, is affected by a number of things. 

• Weather and climate: temperature, relative humidity, amount of precipitation prior to or during a fire, and periods of drought affect when, where, and how fires burn. 

• Topography: the steepness slopes or the direction they face; fire tends to burn faster and often at higher intensity when moving up steep slopes, especially drier south-facing slopes.  

• Time since last fire: more time means more buildup of sticks, leaves, and duff, and greater density of trees and shrubs. 

• The type of vegetation that is burning: grasses, when dry, carry fast-moving fire. Chaparral shrubs support intense fires that typically kill most or all nearby vegetation, but later resprouts from below-ground roots or seeds in the soil. Oaks or California buckeye are more likely to survive fire and re-seed or re-sprout afterwards.