Friends Group Home Page

The Friends of Colorado Bend State Park is a non-profit group that supports the park and it's staff through volunteer efforts and donation funds. Here you can learn more about the park and how we support it. You can also check out news, upcoming events, and ongoing projects

We have been fortunate to receive quite a bit of rain over the past couple of months. All the vegetation is nice and green for this time of year. Coupled with the normal toasty temperatures hovering around 100° there has been a healthy helping of humidity to deal with too. There have been many rescues related to dehydration and heat exhaustion. We are recommending that everyone carry plenty of water, 1 liter per person/ per hour.

Cave tours, live music, nature walks, and more. Call for tour reservations or event info: @ 325-628-3240.

Gorman Cave closed by TPWD Executive Order Number 10-005.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department closed Gorman Cave to public access on July 29th, 2010 in accordance with the Department's White Nose Syndrome Action Plan. Walking cave tours of Gorman Cave have been discontinued. The closure was initiated to protect the habitat of a large colony of cave myotis bats (Myotis velifer) in response to the threat of White Nose Syndrome reaching Texas.

White Nose Syndrome affects hibernating bat species and so far is associated with the death of over one million bats. White Nose Syndrome was first discovered in New York State in 2006 and is spreading throughout the U.S. at an alarming rate; it has now been detected in western Oklahoma in cave myotis. There is so much about this wildlife crisis that is still unknown. In an attempt to protect the bats from accidental introduction of the pathogen by humans and to decrease disturbance to the colony TPWD is closing Gorman Cave and closely monitoring the bat population.

Still interested in Caving? Do you want to explore a wild cave? We invite you to participate in one of our weekly guided crawling tours (listed above) of other caves in the park that do not support sensitive bat colonies, call for details and reservations.

We have a wide variety service projects and ways to volunteer. Some current projects:

Call the park for information, 325-628-3240 or email Kevin at kmferguss@gmail.com.